Publicizing Govt. Officials‘ Land Speculation Clouded

The Korea Real Estate Brokers Association (KREBA) came to the conclusion that it would not announce cases of property speculation by high-ranking government officials.

Kim Bu-won, President of KREBA, in a telephone interview yesterday with the Donga Ilbo, said: “Since the collected data is insufficient to take the cases as speculation, the association changed its plan and did not reveal any relevant information.“

“Some brokers who collected data don`t want it to be released,” said Chairman Kim adding, “We decided to respect the majority`s opinion to revoke the former plan to announce the release of the data.”

KREBA issued a public statement on June 3, in which the association pledged to publicize the property speculation cases committed by high-ranking officials, in a demonstration against the probe by the National Tax Service (NTS), which started at the end of May this year.

According to the statement, the association, which has about 44,000 member realtors under 16 charters across the nation, would have collected inappropriate property transactions and corrupt activities, which have implicated high-profile government officials and celebrities, and made the data public by the end of June.

The industry believes that the recent change in the attitude of KREBA was related with NTS` decision to ease up on the realtors.

Some believe that the association was affected by the mentality that “it would do no good to make it hard on those in public office.”

KREBA Chairman Kim countered the claim of “pressure from government officials” and said that their "final decision was our own and nothing to do with external pressure.”

Chang-Won Kim changkim@donga.com