“Answering the Voices from the Field by Enhancing the Rights and Interests of the People” ACRC Announces its Key Achievements after One Year since the Popular Sovereignty Government Took Office

- Mediated and resolved 70 collective petitions,
 relieved the grievances of 30,000 citizens under the new administration

- Integrated representative phone numbers of 15 central administrative agencies
into ACRC’s National Call Center 110

- Piloted AI-based ePeople service for some of the central administrative agencies and local government

- Introduced one-stop application for publicly appointed representatives in administrative appeals, as well as audio support service for vulnerable groups

(Jun. 1. 2026, ACRC)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Jung Il Yeon) announced its key achievements on June 1st, celebrating one-year of the launch of the popular sovereignty government.

The announcement was made to inform people of the major policies that the ACRC has pursued over the past year to resolve the public grievances and disseminate a culture of integrity, so that citizens can tangibly feel the changes brought by these policies.

In line with the three key strategies* for realizing the vision of President Lee’s administration — A Nation That Truly Belongs to the People, a Republic of Korea Where Everyone is Happy Together — the ACRC unveiled nine major policies that have already borne fruit. The main content of ACRC’s nine key achievements is as follows.

* Three key strategies: 1. Resolve people’s grievances by proactive and practical response; 2. Institutional improvement based on the people’s voice, and resolve grievances through administrative appeals; 3. Update anti-corruption laws and regulations and disseminate the culture of integrity

[ Strategy 1. Resolve People’s Grievances by Proactive and Practical Response ]

First, the ACRC established a government-wide foundation for resolving collective conflict petitions and habitually recurring petitions to resolve public grievances and reduced the overall volume of petitions.

Over the past year, the ACRC mediated and resolved 70 collective petitions and addressed the difficulties of a total of 30,498 citizens. Through active communication with people who had staged long-term sit-ins or repeatedly filed petitions in front of the presidential office and local government buildings, nine long-term protesters were able to return to their daily lives, and approximately 150,000 repeated petitions were reduced.

The commission also established the Collective Conflict Mediation Bureau as a dedicated organization in January, and announced in March the Measures to Expand Civil Petitions Handling and Communication to reduce repeated petitions and collective conflict related petitions, and respond to them more effectively. The ACRC co-hosted a Grievance Innovation Forum and Workshop with the Public Conflict Mediation Secretary of the Presidential Office together with the presidential office, impressing upon the overall public sector the government’s determination to resolve civil grievances.

The ACRC also plans to announce in June the “Roadmap for Resolving Collective Conflict and Unusual Civil Grievances of the Popular Sovereignty Government,” jointly prepared with relevant institutions.

Second, starting from May 26, the ACRC additionally integrated the representative numbers of 15 central administrative agencies* — in addition to the six already integrated — into National Call Center 110 which is operated by the ACRC, in order to resolve public inconvenience arising from the fact that public institutions operate about 700 separate consultation numbers. The ACRC plans to expand the service to 34 central administrative agencies by 2027.

* 15 central administrative agencies: Board of Audit and Inspection, Fair Trade Commission, Korea Aerospace Administration, Korea Coast Guard, Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, National Agency for Administrative City Construction, National Human Rights Commission, Rural Development Administration, The Peaceful Unification Advisory Council. (In alphabetical order)

In addition, the ACRC plans to expand the number guidance and call-transfer service of National Call Center 110 for central administrative agencies and public institutions from the current 150 numbers to 300 by the end of this year, and to all central administrative agencies and public institutions by 2027.

Third, the ACRC toured the country to operate the “Everyone’s Plaza on Wheels” program last July with the Presidential Committee on State Affairs Planning, listened to people’s proposals regarding the new administration and petitions.

A total of 850 proposals and petitions were received across 13 local governments under six regions. In the course of this programme, petitions on traffic inconvenience caused by railway construction in Yanggu-gun were resolved through consultation with relevant agencies.

[ Strategy 2. Institutional Improvement Based on the People’s Voice, and Resolve Grievance Through Administrative Appeals ]

Fourth, the ACRC introduced an AI-based ePeople pilot service last February in order to handle civil petitions more efficiently and swiftly resolve citizens’ difficulties. Four agencies – the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Incheon Metropolitan City, and Siheung City – are currently using AI for functions such as petition responses recommendation and batch processing of frequently recurring petitions to more ly respond to citizens’ voices.

The ACRC expects that the AI-based ePeople will enhance the quality of civil petition handling services and strengthen the government’s capacity to respond to difficulties in people’s daily lives. In this regard, the Commission plans to introduce the service to all central administrative agencies by 2027, and expand it to local governments and public institutions by 2030.

Fifth, the ACRC established improvement measures for institutions closely related to people’s everyday life, so that citizens could tangibly feel changes in their daily lives, and recommended them to relevant agencies.

Major examples include: recommending the addition of a ground subsidence category to public facility liability insurance which local governments subscribe to, in order to strengthen compensation for ground subsidence (sinkhole) accident victims; and recommending that the basic toll be waived in cases where a driver mistakenly exits a highway onto a regular road and re-enters the highway within a short period of time.

Sixth, the ACRC strengthened access to administrative appeals for socially vulnerable groups so that anyone can more conveniently use the administrative appeals system.

The Commission enabled economically vulnerable citizens filing administrative appeals to apply for publicly appointed representatives through a one-stop process, and introduced an audio support service for adjudication rulings so that citizens who have difficulty reading s, such as the visually impaired, can more easily access the results of administrative appeals.

[ Strategy 3. Update anti-corruption laws and regulations and disseminate the culture of integrity ]

Seventh, the ACRC actively processed reports on corruption cases and acts infringing on the public interest, and strengthened the protection and compensation of whistleblowers.

The number of processed reports from May 2025 to April 2026 reached 18,645, a 55.7% increase compared to the same period last year, while the number of processed protection cases during the same period rose 154.3% to 1,195.

One such case occurred last December when ACRC provided a record compensation of KRW 2 billion (surpassing the previous record of KRW 1.22 billion) to a citizen who reported an attempt to illegally transfer state and public owned land free of charge to a redevelopment association during the implementation of an urban redevelopment project.

Eighth, the ACRC newly established the “Basic Regulation on Fair Recruitment of Workers for the Central Administrative Agencies” last April to establish a culture of fair hiring.

Through this regulation, which will take effect this July, standards on hiring procedure and principles that previously varied by agencies will be standardized. It is expected that the hiring of non-civil service officials — such as public service workers, fixed-term employees, and part-time employees — at central administrative agencies will become fairer.

※ Main contents: establishment and operation of a deliberative body to review and resolve important matters related to recruitment, such as the appropriateness of hiring plans; inclusion of external members among screening committee members; etc.

Ninth, the ACRC strengthened not only existing integrity education but also education on protecting citizens’ rights and interests, including civil petition handling and conflict management in order to enhance public officials’ capacity to protect citizens’ rights and interests.

The ACRC renamed its Anti-Corruption Training Institute to the Korea Integrity and Civil Rights Training Institute (KICTI), and has been operating training for public officials since March this year using newly developed educational content on rights relief and conflict management.

Chairperson Jung stated, “The ACRC is working to protect the rights and interests of the people and to build a society of integrity. Beyond today’s nine key achievements, we will do our utmost to create changes that people can genuinely feel.”

He added, “We will continue to communicate with the public, listen closely to the voices of the people, and build a nation in which the people are the true masters.”