More than 80% of lawmakers saw assets increase in 2021: data

More than eight in 10 lawmakers saw their personal assets grow in value last year amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday.

As of December 2021, 240 lawmakers, or 83 percent of the 289 legislators who disclosed their assets, said their assets expanded compared with a year earlier, according to the National Assembly data.

Of them, 147 reported that their assets increased by between 100 million won ($82,610) and 500 million won. Six lawmakers said their assets jumped by 1 billion won over a one-year period.

Rep. Jeon Bong-min of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) topped the list of wealthy lawmakers, with personal assets totaling 106.55 billion won. Jeon was previously the CEO of a local builder, Ijin Construction, owned by his father.

He was followed by fellow PPP lawmakers Park Duk-hyum and Yoon Sang-hyun who reported assets worth 67.23 billion won and 57.79 billion won, respectively.

Excluding the top three, the lawmakers on average had 2.38 billion won worth of assets as of the end of 2021, according to the data.

National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug reported 6.62 billion won in wealth.

Excluding lawmakers, 37 high-ranking National Assembly officials, meanwhile, reported an average 1.57 billion won in assets as of the end of 2021, up more than 300 million won from a year earlier. (Yonhap)