Oh Se-hoon, mayor of Seoul, said on the 24th that "in Seoul City, it is hard to recall issues such as suspicions of junkets, controversies over contributed acceptance, or skewed spending on ads for certain local media outlets."
In a social media post that day titled "I will make it impossible for any form of corruption to take root in Seoul," Mayor Oh said, "Since returning as mayor, along with restoring urban competitiveness, the very first task I took on was a 'war on corruption.'"
Mayor Oh said, "Anti-corruption is not completed with a one-off event," adding, "What matters most is embedding it within the system through repetition and accumulation."
He added, "Seoul has made anti-corruption and integrity strategy meetings a regular practice and, for the first time among metropolitan governments, created a dedicated unit called the 'integrity officer,'" and "while other local governments relied on audit offices or team-level units, Seoul elevated integrity into an 'independent system.'"
Mayor Oh also said, "Results are confirmed in numbers," adding, "At the end of 2024, Seoul ranked No. 1 nationwide in the comprehensive integrity assessment that the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission released."
He continued, "We raised the assessment, which had been the lowest grade (grade 5, 2017) during the previous mayor's term, to the highest grade in a short time," adding, "In the 2025 survey, we also received grade 1 on the integrity effort indicator."
Mayor Oh said, "At least in Seoul City, it is hard to recall issues such as suspicions of junkets, controversies over contributed acceptance, or skewed spending on ads for certain local media outlets," adding, "We have already structurally blocked any room for such incidents to occur, and a system is in operation that tolerates not even small exceptions."