An international body has ranked South Korea as the top nation to effectively control corruption among Asian countries.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on Thursday disclosed that South Korea ranked 18th among 114 countries, and first in Asia, on the Index of Public Integrity(IPI) after scoring eight-point-09 points. 

The IPI gauges a society’s capacity to control corruption and ensure public resources are spent without corrupt practices. It is released every other year by the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building. 
 
South Korea ranked 23rd in 2015 when the Berlin-based agency first began to release the IPI. The nation then went on to see its ranking drop to 24th in 2017 and then climb to 20th in 2019.

The IPI consists of six components: judicial independence, administrative burden, trade openness, budget transparency, e-citizenship and freedom of the press. 

South Korea placed first in trade openness, 12th in e-citizenship, 21st in administrative burden, 26th in budget transparency, 34th in freedom of the press and 48th in judicial independence.