Ginseng sets, lavish meals off limits in S Korea graft crackdown

Seoul

LAVISH free meals, rounds of golf and expensive gifts of beef and ginseng will soon be off-limits for civil servants, teachers and journalists in South Korea under a law aimed at clamping down on graft that has long been pervasive in professional life.

The anti-corruption law that takes effect next month imposes spending limits on entertainment and gifts, curbing a tradition of hospitality that many restaurants, retailers and farmers worry will deal a blow to business. "It's making it illegal for those who have the money and are willing to pay more. This is nonsense," Yoo Byoung-hee, 45, a cattle breeder in Jecheon, south of Seoul, told Reuters.