유전무죄 무전유죄

Korean

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 有錢 (“having money”) + 無罪 (“innocent”) + 無錢 (“lacking money”) + 有罪 (“guilty”).

Although attested since at least 1955, it was popularized mainly by Ji Kang Hun. Ji was a thief sentenced to seventeen years for having stolen 5.56 million Won (equivalent to around 15,000 USD in 2021), who escaped prison in 1988 after hearing that the younger brother of president Chun Doo-hwan had been sentenced to a mere seven years despite having embezzled 7.6 billion Won. He took hostages in order to gain nationwide media coverage. In the ensuing hostage crisis, Ji said:

대한민국의 비리를 밝히겠다. 돈이 있으면 판검사도 살 수 있다. 유전무죄 무전유죄, 우리 법이 이렇다.

daehanmin'gug-ui biri-reul balkigetda. don-i isseumyeon pan'geomsa-do sal su itda. yujeonmujoe mujeonyujoe, uri beob-i ireota.

I will be revealing the corruption behind this Republic of Korea. If you have the money, you can buy off the prosecutors and the judges, too. The rich are innocent and the poor are guilty; this is our law.

The saying is sometimes wrongly claimed to have been coined by Ji.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ˈju(ː)d͡ʑʌ̹nmud͡ʑwe̞ mud͡ʑʌ̹ɲud͡ʑwe̞] ~ [ˈju(ː)d͡ʑʌ̹nmud͡ʑø̞ mud͡ʑʌ̹ɲud͡ʑø̞]
• Phonetic hangul: [유(ː)전무줴 무저뉴줴/유(ː)전무죄 무저뉴죄]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	yujeonmujoe mujeonyujoe
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	yujeonmujoe mujeon'yujoe
McCune–Reischauer?	yujŏnmujoe mujŏnyujoe
Yale Romanization?	yūcenmucoy mucen.yucoy

Noun

유전무죄 무전유죄 • (yujeonmujoe mujeonyujoe) (hanja 有錢無罪 無錢有罪)

1. (four-character idiom from Classical Chinese) "the rich are innocent and the poor are guilty"; money buys off the law