Wealth grew for 60% of lawmakers

About 60 percent of the nation's legislators increased their wealth last year. Fifty-one of the 268 National Assembly members who filed reports with the Public Official Ethics Committee had increases in their holdings of over 100 million won ($76,000) during 2001, according to a report released Thursday by the ethics committee. It reported changes in the net wealth of senior officials in the administration on Wednesday. One hundred members reported losses, and five reported no changes in their holdings.

An independent assemblyman, Chung Mong-joon, topped the list of biggest gainers. Mr. Chung, the largest stockholder of three Hyundai affiliates, earned 54.6 billion won from his shareholdings. He had reported 160 billion won in losses the previous year. Grand National Kim Moo-sung was another legislator whose investments were profitable last year. Mr. Kim's wealth increased by 1.5 billion won from sales of his shares in POSCO and Samsung Electronics Co.

Park Sang-hee of the Millennium Democratic Party reported the biggest losses among the legislators. Mr. Park lost 9.96 billion won when several affiliates of Miju, in which he is a major stockholder, went bankrupt last year.

In apparent attempts to show how detailed their disclosures were, Kwon Gi-sool reported a 49,000 won decrease in assets. Min Bong-gi reported losses of 600,000 won and Yun Han-do reported a loss of just 27,000 won.

There are 273 National Assembly seats, but Prime Minister Lee Han-dong and Representative Kim Un-yong were excluded from Thursday's report; their assets were reported Wednesday. Chang Sung-min, who lost his seat for violations of election laws, and two deceased members were also excluded.

by Song Sang-hoon