This paper will review and assess the new governance model of the Korean state to comprehend the reform of its public corporations and governmental agencies. In particular, a new governance model for disentangling privatization of public corporations, and agencification and incorporation of governmental agencies in Korea during the last fifteen years (the three former presidents) will be examined and addressed in line with the Neo-Weberian State model. Since the 1997 economic crisis, among 322 non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), just two or three public corporations have been privatized, and public-private-partnership (PPP) type privatization such as contracting-out, franchising etc. has been executed to a limited extent. Moreover, the Act of Privatization of 1999, which targeted privatizing Korea Electricity, Korea Gas, etc., became void owing to the overdue by 2008. In addition, 31 governmental agencies accounting for about 20 per cent out of total 157 agencies have been switched to independent executive agencies, yet their independence, in contrast to an original legislative purpose, was assessed to be lower. Moreover, just a few agencies – e.g. Korea Railways, National Hospital and National Modern Gallery – have been incorporated, on the contrary, policy drafts for incorporating Korea Post and some agro-forestry-fisheries agencies have continued to be cancelled or postponed. This might imply that the Korean state has been transformed in line with the NWS governance model with a view to reinforcing its governmental capacity, rather than reducing its roles in accordance with the new public management (NPM) and new public governance (NPG) model.
