Justice Minister Kang`s Money Woes

Minister of Justice Kang Geum-sil (photo, 46 years old) is called the ‘Minister who does not have three things.’ She neither has husband, children nor house. When she was with her now ex-husband, Kim Tae-kyung (49 years old), for sixteen years, she didn’t have a child according to her husband’s wishes. She had resigned her judgeship and became a lawyer in 1996 so that she could pay back her husband’s debt which he owed from his running of a publishing company. However, she could not liquidate all her husband’s debt and ended up divorcing him on August 2000.

Although she divorced her husband, all his debt remained on her shoulders. The debt amounted to about 900 million won at the time of the divorce. She used up all the money that she had earned working as a representative of Jipyung Judicial Affairs Firm for three years in order to pay back the principal and interest. The debt is still pending at just over 600 million won.

At the time of her retirement, Minister Kang received around 300 million KRW from the firm in recognition of her services and as a retirement bonus. But it was of little help because the money was paid to settle the loan she had gotten from the firm.

Also, Minister Kang`s older sister wanted to sell her own house (K Villa in Samsung-dong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul) where the two sisters had lived together. She thought that she could not afford to pay interest on the debt after living expenses from her Minister of Justice salary (8 million won monthly including bonuses) based on her last two months` experience as Justice Minister.

The payments that she should now make amount to 5 million won in interest only per month. She also needs to pay back the principal every month, but can not afford to do so.

The market price of the house that Justice Minister Kang`s sister owns is around 700 million won for 60 pyeong. She currently wants to sell it for 650 million won in order to dispose of the house quickly. The Justice Minister expects that she would be somewhat relieved from the burden of debt repayment, if her sister’s house is sold.

However, it is just not enough to liquidate all her debt with the proceeds from the sale of the house. This is because that her sister`s debt, more than 100 million won, is still outstanding from her partnership in the publishing company Minister Kang`s husband ran.

“Minister Kang does not even have a car, such a common item these days, so that she can pay back her husband’s debt as quickly as possible,” an associate said. “Her older sister seems to have made this decision in order for her to help in the complete liquidation of her younger sister’s debt, which has been thus far too large a burden for Minister Kang.”

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com