The 11 Sep 93 Economist had an article on South Korea called "Too clean for comfort" about their president Kim Young Sam and his political housecleaning. I excerpt a relevant passage. [...] One of Mr Kim;s first presidential acts was to bare his assets. Then ministers, MPs and top civil servants were all required to disclose their net worth. To no one's surprise, while the president's people were mostly clean, many of the old guard turned out to be rolling in wealth whose origins they could not readily explain. Many resigned. The "real names" reform, announced on August 12th, was Mr Kim's most radical step yet. The issue had been hotly debated for over a decade. Hitherto South Koreans had been able to keep bank accounts in any name they cared to invent; convenient for tax evasion, and for recycling the cash-stuffed white envelopes that for decades have routinely oiled the country's wheels of business and politics alike. Mr Kim struck out of the blue. Only the secret task force drawing up the plan knew about it; they had told their families that they were on a course in America. Even Mr Kim's cabinet was informed only an hour before the public announcement. Not a word leaked out. [...] Anyone who upsets so many applecarts risks making himself a lot of enemies. But Mr Kim's positioning is good. Anyone who speaks out against real names or asset-baring must surely have something to hide. Conversely, the whole campaign is widely popular with the public, chiming as it does with the widespread perception (even in a country with one fo the world's most even distributions of income) that fat cats are licking off the cream. A new target market? Eric