Top officials reveal assets

President Roh Moo-hyun revealed his net worth to the public yesterday, along with other senior public officials.
The Public Official Ethics Committee yesterday released the assets of 58 officials, including ministers and vice ministers, Blue House senior secretaries and former President Kim Dae-jung.
Ministers and Blue House senior secretaries have an average of around 1.2 billion won ($1 million) in total assets, which they possess in various forms.
President Roh reported 255.2 million won in assets, including his wife’s bank accounts.
Prime Minister Goh Kun reported about 3.7 billion won, including the assets of his three children. Mr. Goh holds about 1.3 billion won worth of property in Dongsung-dong, Seoul.
The average holdings of all ministers, except the prime minister, are about 1.1 billion won. For the 13 Blue House senior secretaries, the average was about 1.4 billion won.
The richest official is Chin Dae-je, minister of information and communication, who reported about 10 billion won. At the other end, justice Minister Kang Gum-sil reported 930 million won in debt. Even though Ms. Kang has about 10 million won of land on Jeju island and about 140 million won in bank deposits, she had to cover the bankruptcy of her ex-husband’s business.
Many of the officials proved to hold not only bank accounts, stocks and property but also profits in jewelry, country club memberships, automobiles and gold.
Mr. Chin holds the most stocks, valued at about 5.8 billion won. The education minister, Yoon Deok-hong, has about 160 million won in stocks.
Mr. Chin also holds two country club memberships, worth about 470 million won.
Lee Young-tak, head of the Office of Government Policy Coordination, reported assets including ownership of a diamond.
Kim Hee-sang, presidential adviser for national defense, reported assets in the copyrights of his five books.

by Lee Key-one