By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter


About 67.4 percent of Koreans harbor negative sentiment toward rich people, while 62.2 percent have antipathy toward the owners of corporations, according to a Gallup survey.

The survey showed that Korean public’s antipathy toward the rich and owners of large corporations, rather than the antagonism toward chaebol itself, is deepening anti-corporate sentiment.

According to the survey conducted by the commission of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), public disapproval of conglomerates (42.6 percent), both small and big firms (39 percent) and small- and medium-sized enterprises (28.3 percent) was milder, the survey showed.

The survey involved 800 citizens aged between 20 and 59, 150 opinion leaders, including professors and activists with non-governmental organization, and 114 corporate executives.

Public approval of chaebol shot up by 13.5 percentage points to 57.4 percent from the results of a similar survey in May 2003. In contrast, public approval for the owners of corporations fell by 6.3 percentage points to 37.8 percent.

``The higher public approval of conglomerates can be ascribed to a positive evaluation of chaebol’s role in creating jobs and their ethical management,’’ Park Byung-jin, an FKI manager, said. ``Negative public sentiment toward the owners of corporations can mainly be attributed to the widening income gap between the rich and the poor,’’ he added.

The 800 Korean citizens picked job creation (24.4 percent), contribution to national and social development (21.6 percent) and profit maximization (20.1 percent) as the chief tasks of corporations.

Among corporate executives, 66.7 percent said anti-corporate sentiment in Korea is still at a serious level.

Only 15.8 percent of the corporate executives said they believe anti-corporate sentiment in Korea had eased from a year earlier, while 32.5 said they feel public hostility toward corporations has intensified.

Executives said they sensed anti-corporate sentiment from hostile labor-management relationships (42.1 percent), caustic reports in news media (26.3 percent) and regulatory corporate policies of the government (14.9 percent).

``The FKI will seek ways to alleviate public antipathy toward the rich and owners of corporations as resolving conflict between the rich and the poor is required for Korea to grow into a developed economy,’’ Kim Suk-joong, an FKI vice president, said.

``We will kick off a nationwide noblesse oblige campaign and promote the education of basic principles of the market economy to promote public understanding of the role of corporations,’’ Kim said.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr