Assemblymen’s Average Property, 1.1 Billion Won

It was found that the average amount of assets of 201 assemblymen of the 17th National Assembly’s new assets registration was 1.16 billion won. This amount is approximately 500 million won less than the average amount of assets of 1.617 billion won from the new registration of the 16th National Assembly.

The National Assembly’s Public Official’s Ethics Committee released the content of the assets reports and the alterations of 203 assemblymen subjected to the new assets registration and 170 retired assemblymen of the 16th National Assembly through the public information office of the National Assembly on July 28.

Based on the results of the assets disclosure, it is likely for an ethic dispute to swell over the process of assets growth, such as suspicions of speculation, after it was discovered that several assemblymen possessed large amounts of real estate in areas without any connection.

In addition, controversy over the issue of poor reporting is expected as 30 assemblymen from the Uri Party, 21 from the Grand National Party, six from the Democratic Labor Party, and two from the Democratic Party who failed to report assets from their linear ascendants or descendants amounted to 59, 29.4 percent of the targeted assemblymen of the new registration.

Among the targeted 203 assemblymen of the new registration, excluding Cho Bae-sook of the Uri Party and Choi Gyu-shik of the Grand National Party who reported only the changed portion, examining the remaining 201 assemblymen’s assets by party, the average amount of assets for the Uri Party (120 assemblymen) was 986.59 million won, 1.433 billion won for the Grand National Party (63 assemblymen), 123.9 million won for the Democratic Labor Party (10 assemblymen), and 1.82 billion won for the Democratic Party (four assemblymen).

Among the targeted assemblymen of the new registration, Assemblyman Kim Hyuk-gyu of the Uri Party reported the highest amount of assets with 10.055 billion won. Sixteen assemblymen reported assets that totaled over three billion won.

On the other hand, Assemblyman Hyun Ae-ja of the Democratic Labor Party reported the lowest asset amount with negative 563 million won, and 26 assemblymen reported assets of less than 100 million won.

Young-Chan Yoon yyc11@donga.com