By Shim Jae-yun
Staff Reporter

President Roh Moo-hyun failed to include 260 million won in credit from the sale of an apartment and 7 million won in savings in his report about his and his immediate family members’ assets last year.

``We regret the failure to account for this during President Roh’s report about his wealth last year,’’ presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young said in a briefing on Thursday. The unaccounted-for apartment, which is located in central Seoul, belonged to first lady Kwon Yang-suk at the time.

Chong Wa Dae’s explanation came after the government released the data about increases and decreases of assets belonging to senior officials.

According to the Ethics Committee for Government officials, Roh’s assets amounted to 654.4 million won (about $545,000) at the end of last year, up sharply from the 205.5 million won registered at the time of his Feb. 25 inauguration.

The remaining increase of 181 million won, after deducting 267 million won from the total increase, mainly comes from money Roh saved from his salary, Yoon added.

Prime Minister Goh Kun’s assets, which amounted to 3.567 billion won in February last year, decreased by 68.36 million won in the same period.

The data showed that 75.2 percent of first-grade government officials, not including ministers and vice ministers, saw their assets increase in the 10-month period covered by the report.

Out of the 581 officials, 24.1 percent had decreased assets, while the assets of four officials remained the same.

Park Sang-kil, deputy Justice Minister in charge of planning and management affairs, recorded the sharpest rise in assets of 3.61 billion won, boosted by money given to him by his father-in-law.

Information and Communications Minister Chin Dae-je registered the second highest increase in assets of 3.01 billion won.

Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak had 18.87 billion won in total asset, an increase of 216.5 million won.