The Ruling Party, Government, and Blue House Choose Indiscriminate Investigation of Public Officials... Effectiveness of LH Measures?

De Facto Choosing Indiscriminate Full-Scale Investigation Targeting Public Officials
Legislative Gaps Remain in 'Real Estate Nominee Transactions'
Effectiveness of LH Measures Must Be Ensured

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and Acting Leader of the Democratic Party Kim Tae-nyeon are taking a commemorative photo at the 4th High-level Party-Government Consultation held on the afternoon of the 28th at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. During the meeting, the party and government discuss measures to block illegal activities such as expanding public officials' asset registration, as well as innovation plans including the reorganization of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH). From the left, Hong Ik-pyo, Chairman of the Democratic Party Policy Committee; Jin Sun-mi, Chair of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee; Park Kwang-on, Secretary-General of the Democratic Party; Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance; Prime Minister Chung; Acting Leader Kim; Kim Sang-jo, Chief Presidential Secretary for Policy; and Byun Chang-heum, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group.

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] As public sentiment on real estate has long deteriorated due to the LH scandal, the ruling party, government, and Blue House have decided to expand the scope of asset disclosure from the existing 230,000 people (grade 4 and above) to 1.3 million people (grade 5 and below central and local government officials, public institution and public enterprise employees), increasing the total to a maximum of 1.6 million people.

Including spouses and children of the 1.3 million lower-level public officials, up to 5.2 million people based on a family of four will be added to the asset disclosure target. While there are criticisms that this will be difficult to serve as a ‘pinpoint regulation’ to identify ‘land speculation public officials’ due to the administrative effort and social costs involved in the investigation, there are also considerable calls to use this opportunity to examine transparency across the entire public service.

Professor Choi Chang-ryeol of Yongin University evaluated the full survey of public officials from grade 5 down to grade 9, saying, “Since such problems may be widespread throughout the public service, including basic local governments, it is a reasonable measure to attempt a full survey at this time.” Political commentator Lee Jong-hoon also mentioned, “I agree if the purpose is to promote a culture of integrity throughout the public service.”

There is also a possibility that the scope of the investigation will be further expanded in the future. The investigation targets have been set as government officials and employees of public enterprises and public institutions holding ‘public office,’ but demands for investigations into other professions related to public interest may arise at any time. In fact, on the 15th, Lee Nak-yeon, the standing election committee chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, mentioned at a party meeting, “I am thinking about encouraging teachers and the media to join this movement as well.”

The full survey of ‘elected public officials,’ such as members of the National Assembly, which both parties have loudly initiated, has yet to determine the investigating body. On the same day, Roh Woong-rae, a senior member of the Democratic Party, raised his voice at the central election committee meeting, saying, “If there is no agreement with the opposition party, the Democratic Party alone should conduct a full survey through the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.”

However, the current measures lack legislative action related to real estate nominee transactions, which made investigations into LH land speculation difficult. On the 17th, Democratic Party lawmaker Park Joo-min proposed the ‘Real Estate Nominee Ownership Prevention Act Amendment,’ which makes it difficult to hold real estate under nominee names, but it has not been included in the discussions on the LH5 Act. This amendment stipulates that if a nominee trust is made to register real estate under a nominee to evade legal restrictions or tax evasion, the rights to exercise claims on the relevant real estate will be denied in the future.

Meanwhile, on the 29th, Kim Tae-nyeon, acting leader of the Democratic Party, also mentioned at the central election committee meeting, “We will legislate additionally to require all public officials to register their assets.” Along with this, he plans to propose to the opposition party to hold a one-point National Assembly session this week to pass the ‘Conflict of Interest Prevention Act’ for public officials and to introduce a bill for the ‘retroactive confiscation of speculative profits,’ which had sparked constitutional controversy.

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