SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s antitrust watchdog needs to launch an organization focused exclusively on tackling problems caused by excessive concentration of power and market influence in large conglomerates, its head said Tuesday.

“In order to tackle problems related to large business groups, which is crucial to economic democratization, we need to create an organization that will exclusively take the lead (on the issue),” Fair Trade Commission chairman Kim Dong-soo told reporters during a luncheon meeting.

Kim also said that the watchdog needs to expand its organizational structure in order to meet the growing demand for economic democratization.

Economic democratization was a major campaign agenda in the months leading up to the Dec. 19 presidential election with its focus placed mostly on reforming large conglomerates.

Conglomerates, also known as chaebol here, are credited with propelling the country’s economic growth over the past decades but also blamed for hurting smaller companies and widening income gaps by using their excessive market power.

Meanwhile, Kim said that the FTC will seek strict punishment for chief executive officers of large-scale retailers if they are proved to have directly ordered or known in advance about any illegal activities carried out by their companies.