■ Regular Asset Disclosure of Senior Public Officials
— 4 of 16 members on National Assembly's Land and Transport Committee own two or more homes
— Han Sung-sook tops cabinet with 22.3 billion won
Despite President Lee Jae-myung's push to encourage public officials with multiple properties to sell, key policy officials and lawmakers still own two or more homes, newly disclosed asset records show. A significant number of National Assembly members on committees handling related legislation, including the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, were also found to hold multiple properties.
According to senior public official asset disclosures released Thursday by the Government Ethics Committee, senior government officials held an average of 2.095 billion won in assets per person. The disclosure covered 1,903 individuals including politically appointed officials in the executive branch, senior civil servants (Grade A), national university presidents, metropolitan and local government heads, and metropolitan and provincial education superintendents. By asset size, 616 senior officials (32.4%) — roughly one-third of the total — reported assets of 2 billion won or more. Among those subject to disclosure, 76.1% (1,449 individuals) saw their assets increase compared with the previous filing.
While President Lee has stated he would exclude multi-home officials from the housing policy process, a considerable number of officials on key policy lines still own multiple properties. An analysis of the disclosed assets found that 13 presidential office staff members and seven cabinet ministers were multi-home owners. In the National Assembly, four of the 16 members on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee — the body in charge of real estate policy — owned two or more homes.
President Lee reported total assets of 4.97 billion won, an increase of 1.88 billion won, primarily from book royalties, salary and exchange-traded fund (ETF) valuation gains. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok reported 330 million won in assets. Minister of SMEs and Startups Han Sung-sook recorded the highest among cabinet members at 22.3 billion won.
Meanwhile, according to the National Assembly Ethics Committee, lawmakers reported average assets of 2.88 billion won per person, calculated after excluding two members whose assets exceeded 50 billion won.