South Korea's big family-owned conglomerates, the Chaebol, have told the government to leave them alone and stop interfering in their attempts to reform.

South Korea's economy is growing again after it was struck by the Asian financial crisis two years ago, but there are worries inside the country and outside that the Chaebol are not sincere in their enthusiasm for reform.

The timing of this outburst does look a little suspicious. Earlier this week, financial regulators launched another investigation into the probity of South Korea's biggest businesses.

Sick of being bossed around

The family-owned Chaebol dominate the economy and they've been blamed for the economic crisis that led to the record-breaking rescue by the International Monetary Fund in 1997.

The IMF organised emergency loans in return for promises of free market reforms.

Seoulbank: South Korea's economy is growing again

The Chaebol's grandiose expansion plans led to far too many factories making things that people didn't want to buy.

They were told by new president Kim Dae Jung to slim down. Now the Chaebol, through their club - the Federation of Korean Industries - say they've had enough of being bossed around.

A senior figure in the Federation, Sohn Byong-Doo, told foreign journalists that the Chaebol are doing all the things they've been asked to do.

For example, he said they're getting their borrowings under control and becoming more open so in future it will be more difficult to obscure a company's true financial position by hiding its debts with complicated guarantees between affiliates.

And he also pointed out that the government's own attempts to try to rationalise industry by forcing companies to swap overlapping subsidiaries had had patchy success.

He said the government should have less influence on business.