[Public Officials' Property Disclosure] Half of Central Government Employees Own Land... Some Included in 3rd New Town Development

51% of Public Officials Own Land... Total Land Assets Amount to 100.7844 Billion Won
Some Included in 3rd New Towns... "Purchased or Inherited Decades Ago"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] More than half of the central government officials subject to asset disclosure were found to own land. Some officials owned land in the 3rd New Town districts and nearby areas. However, it was judged that it is difficult to consider this as speculation since the land was bought or inherited decades ago.

According to the regular asset change report disclosed by the Government Officials Ethics Committee through the official gazette on the 25th, out of a total of 759 high-ranking officials subject to asset disclosure, 388 officials (51.1%) reported owning land. The total value of their land assets was 100.78447 billion KRW.

President Moon Jae-in reported owning 4,670.09㎡ of land in Yangsan, Gyeongnam, and Jeju City, Jeju Province, together with First Lady Kim Jung-sook. The official land price of these lands totals 1.016224 billion KRW.

The official with the largest amount of land was Lim Joon-taek, Chairman of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives. The total official land price reached 7.4 billion KRW. He reported owning 3,868㎡ of land in areas such as Annam-dong, Seo-gu, Busan, and Dadae-dong, Saha-gu.

Officials owning land incorporated into the 3rd New Town included Park Sung-jae, Governor of Hwanghae Province at the Office of the Five Northern Provinces (Gwangmyeong), Choi Sung-ho, Secretary General of the Korea Communications Commission (Namyangju), and Park Hyun-min, President of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (Hanam).

However, it is analyzed that these were bought or inherited decades ago, so they are far from land speculation suspicions.

Among vice ministers and deputy ministers, Seo Ho, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Unification, was found to have the largest land assets worth 1.790597 billion KRW. Kim Kyung-sun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (1.543382 billion KRW), and Park Hwa-jin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (900 million KRW), also have significant land assets.

Kim Yong-beom, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, reported owning four forest land parcels in Geumgok-dong, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi Province, under his spouse’s name. This area is near the Wangsuk district of Namyangju-si, a 3rd New Town, and the reported value at the time of reporting was 235.13 million KRW.

However, the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that the land was purchased by Vice Minister Kim’s father-in-law in 1967 and was jointly inherited by the spouse and children after the father-in-law passed away in January 2018.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.