Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo (The Korea Herald)
South Korea’s National Assembly members have a net worth of 2.3 billion won ($1.77 million) on average, minus the richest four who own over 50 billion won each.
The parliamentary public service ethics committee on Thursday published the list of the changes in the net worth of the 296 Assembly members over last year compared to the year before, which showed that 33 or 11.1 percent held at least 5 billion won respectively.
According to the list, 83 (28 percent) of the Assembly members were worth 2-5 billion won, 104 (35.1 percent) were worth 1-2 billion won; 54 (18.2 percent) valued at 500 million won-1 billion won; and 22 (7.4 percent) worth less than 500 million won.
Among the four richest Assembly members, Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo’s net worth was by far the highest at around 130 billion won, down from 204 billion won he held the previous year. The Seoul National University-taught medical doctor is the founder of the anti-computer-virus software company, AhnLab, and ran for the presidency three times.
Rep. Jeon Bong-min, the first-time lawmaker and the ruling People Power Party deputy floor leader, came in second with 55.9 billion won, followed by the head of the Assembly’s intelligence committee Rep. Park Duk-hyum, who is worth 52.6 billion won. Rep. Park Jeung, who had an English tutoring business before becoming a lawmaker is worth 50.5 billion won.
The Public Service Ethics Act requires high-ranking officials to report the value of their assets and income annually, to be disclosed within a month.
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