Minister of Culture Park Bo-gyun's Property Reduction Allegation: "Staff Simple Mistake"

Joins.com Reports Acquisition Cost of 1,650 Shares from 23 Years Ago
"Unlisted Stocks... Not Related to Underreporting"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Park Bo-gyun, the nominee for Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, has been accused of underreporting his assets. Park's camp defended by saying that the stocks were reported based on their face value.

On the 22nd, according to Yoo Jeong-ju, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, Park reported 1,650 unlisted shares of Joins.com at the acquisition price of 825,000 KRW from 1999 in the personnel hearing request submitted to the National Assembly. Joins.com is the predecessor of JTBC Studio, which changed its name to SLL Joongang last month. Yoo criticized, "The capital was 1 billion KRW in 1999 but is now 50.9 billion KRW," adding, "It is unacceptable that the value of a company that has grown over 23 years was not assessed based on current standards." He also questioned, "I want to ask whether this is an attempt to underreport assets by exploiting loopholes in the public official asset reporting system."

Park's camp explained, "The Joins.com shares were given as performance bonuses to all employees by JoongAng Ilbo in April 2000," adding, "Park received 1,650 shares, and the face value per share at that time was 500 KRW." They further clarified, "Currently, Joins.com shares are unlisted stocks," and "The person in charge made a simple mistake during the data submission process, and it is unrelated to underreporting." Park joined JoongAng Ilbo in 1981 and has worked as a political chief, editorial writer, editor-in-chief, editor, and senior reporter.

Separately from the asset report, ownership of SLL Joongang shares could become an issue in the future due to potential conflicts of interest with the duties of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The minister oversees culture, arts, tourism, sports, and government announcements. It seems likely that Park will either place the shares in a blind trust or dispose of them.

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