Rep. Park Chung-kwon of the People Power Party (PPP) posted the highest asset growth rate among senior public officials in this year's National Assembly property disclosure.
According to the National Assembly Ethics Committee on Monday, Park's declared assets totaled 3.38 billion won ($2.4 million) this year, roughly 60 times the 55.5 million won he reported last year.
The surge stems from the inclusion of his spouse's assets following his marriage. Park cited "addition due to marriage" as the reason for the change. Until last year, he had no real estate holdings, with his assets consisting solely of bank deposits, political donations and cryptocurrency. After marrying in November last year, his spouse's assets were combined into his filing, dramatically increasing the total.
The filing includes approximately 4.6 billion won in real estate under his spouse's name, including apartments in Seoul's Seocho-gu and Jangwi-dong in Seongbuk-gu, two officetel units, three neighborhood commercial facilities and two medical facilities. Also declared were approximately 200 million won in bank deposits, around 150 million won in stocks, roughly 120 million won in cryptocurrency including Bitcoin, and two Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Park was born in 1986 in Hamhung, North Korea, where he graduated third in his class from the No. 1 High School before majoring in chemical engineering at the National Defense University. After defecting in 2009, he completed an integrated master's-doctoral program in materials engineering at Seoul National University, earning a doctoral degree. He worked as a researcher at Hyundai Steel before being recruited by the PPP in December 2023 and won a proportional representation seat in the 2024 general election.
The disclosure released Monday is an annual filing covering sitting lawmakers and senior officials affiliated with the National Assembly. Under the Public Service Ethics Act, officials report changes in assets from the previous year by the end of March each year, and the National Assembly Ethics Committee publishes the filings in the official gazette. Assets of spouses and lineal family members are also subject to combined reporting.
