Roh’s Assets Are Higher than Reported

President Roh Moo-hyun omitted 260 billion won in bonds and seven million won in an insurance account as his assets when reporting his holdings before inauguration.

Roh’s real assets at the time of his inauguration turned out to be 472 million won instead of 262 million won, the amount Roh reported when he registered as a presidential candidate in November 2002.

“When Roh was the president-elect, his elder brother gave about 150 million won for the marriages of Roh’s son and daughter,” said Yoon Tai-young, the Blue House spokesman. That remark triggered questions about the source of this money.

The total amount of Roh’s assets in 2003 was 654.424 million won, an increase of 448.9 million won which includes 155.509 million won in his savings account.

Meanwhile, 75.2 percent of 581 high-ranking public officials reported their assets had increased. Ninety-three officials reported assets increased by more than 100 million won.

The Public Official Ethics Committee released changes in the assets of top officials for 2003. The number of officials who saw their assets decrease is 140 while holdings of four officials remained the same.

Prime Minister Goh Kun reported a decrease of 68.26 million won from his total amount of about 3.56 billion won.

Park Sang-kil, head of the Office of Planning and Management at the Ministry of Justice, saw the biggest increase of approximately 3.61 billion won.

Among the cabinet members, Minister of Information and Communication Chin Dae-je enjoyed the highest increase in his assets of 3.01 billion won.

Twenty officials, including director of the National Intelligence Service, Ko Young-koo, refused to report their assets.

Jeong-Hun Kim ruchi@donga.com jnghn@donga.com