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The property of high-ranking officials reported this year averaged 1,413 million won, an increase of 130 million won from the previous year’s reported amount. This is due to the rise in the public housing price and stock index. As the method of valuation of unlisted stocks became a reality as a real transaction price, the rise of hidden assets to the surface also had an impact.
It was found that half of the high-ranking officials owned the land, and 17 (2.2%) owned the land that included the third new town. Despite the Moon Jae-in administration’s’war against multi-homed people’ for the past four years, one out of four government officials in the central government still owned more than one house.
President Moon Jae-in’s wealth increased by KRW 130 million
According to the’Regular Property Changes for Senior Officials in 2021′ released by the Government Officials Ethics Committee on the 25th in the official gazette, as of the end of last year, 1,885 high-ranking government officials reported property in the name of themselves and their families, on average, of 1,412.97 million won per person. It was counted. This is an average increase of 131.1 million won from the property reported by the same target person last year. The public officials released this time are the central government offices and high-ranking public officials, the president of the national university, the head of a public service-related organization, the head of a metropolitan/basic local government, a member of the metropolitan council, and the superintendent of metropolitan and provincial offices.
President Moon Jae-in reported assets of 2,0772 million won, an increase of 12.76 million won from last year. It included houses and land in Yangsan City, Gyeongsangnam-do, the former sister’s residence, and the newly purchased Jisan-ri site. The fund’s profit was also slight.
Among the Blue House staff, Seo-hoon, head of the National Security Office, reported an increase of 3 billion won to 4,533 million won, making it the most wealthy. Minister of Science and Technology Information and Communication Choi Ki-young reported the property of 1,113 billion won, an increase of 1,168 million won, ranking first among the members of the State Council. Vice Minister Kim Gyeong-seon (11.7 billion won) of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and Lee Kang-seop (11.7 billion won), the head of the Legislative Office, also surpassed 10 billion won.
Half of central officials own land
It turned out that the’love for real estate’ of government officials in the central government remains the same. More than half (51.1%) of the 759 government officials of the central government, including the Blue House, high-ranking public officials from the central government department, the president of the university, and the head of public service-related organizations, reported that they had land. The total amount of land property they own is 10,0778.44 million won. Among them, 95 (12.5%) land holders in the metropolitan area, and 17 (2.2%) land holders in regions including the third new town.
There were also many high-ranking officials who bought new land in the metropolitan area last year. Chey Jae-sung, chief executive officer of the Blue House, bought a land (1119㎡) in Suwon-myeon, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do last year in the name of his spouse. The publicly announced land price of this land is 34.2 million won, which is far from Wangsuk, Namyangju, the third new city. It is reported that Choi is building a house for the purpose of living here. Deputy Minister of Unification Seoho, who reported the most land property (about 1.8 billion won) among the vice ministers, purchased 2 lots of land in Imun-dong, Seoul, with a publicly announced land of 1.34 billion won last year.
Hwanghae-do Governor Park Seong-jae, North 5th Provincial Office, Hwanghae Province (Gwangmyeong), Choi Seong-ho, Secretary General of the Korea Communications Commission (Namyangju), and Park Hyun-min, head of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (Hanam), owned the land for the 3rd new city transfer, but it was found to have been inherited or sold decades ago. Kim Yong-beom, the first vice minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, who owned the forest in Geumgok-dong, about 10 minutes by car from Wangsuk New Town, Namyangju, in the name of his spouse, is also said to be an inheritance property.
One of the four high-ranking officials is multi-homed
Although the government has repeatedly pressed public officials to dispose of the rest of the houses except for one, 184 people (24.2%) of multi-homed people among the high-ranking government officials of the central government. Of these, 40 (5.3%) are three or more.
Even though the heads and vice ministers of the central ministries sold their houses one after another and became the first house, most of them were selling houses in provinces such as Sejong, leaving behind the’one bright house’ in the Gangnam area. The 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Yoon Seong-won and the 2nd Vice Minister Son Myung-soo disposed of the Sejong City housing while holding apartments in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu and Ogeum-dong, Songpa-gu, respectively.
In particular, this year, public officials reported holding large-scale unlisted stocks one after another. This is because the valuation method of unlisted stocks, which had been reported at par value, has been realized as the actual transaction price or the valuation value under the tax law from this year. Incheon District Court Chief Kang Young-soo reported that the spouse had unlisted stocks, including 30,000 bearing art shares and 15,000 shares in Iljin. The reported amount of this stock jumped from 45 million won last year to 41 billion won this year, helping the property of Chief Justice Kang (49.9 billion won) to rank first among all legal professionals. Seoul High Court Deputy Judge Lee Seung-ryeon (10 billion won), Seoul High Court Deputy Judge Kang Seung-jun (2.5 billion won), and Lee Kang-seop (1.87 billion won), the head of the Legislative Office, also reported that they owned a significant amount of unlisted stocks.
Hwang Seo-jong, head of personnel affairs department, said, “We will conduct the first’public officials property intensive screening group’ this year to examine the process of suspicious transactions and property formation, and take strong measures when illegal acts are detected.”
Reporter Sujeong Ha/Hyojoo Ahn/Youngyeon Kang [email protected]