By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter

Rep. Kim Hyuk-kyu of the ruling Uri Party is the richest politician, with assets worth more than 10 billion won ($8.3 million), among 203 lawmakers who have newly filed their financial status with the National Assembly, a report said Wednesday.

The number of new registrants with assets worth more than 5 billion won ($4.2 million) halved to five since the past 16th Assembly, according to the report.

The Assembly’s public servant ethics committee announced the property inventories of 203 lawmakers _ 187 first-term and 16 reelected legislators _ who were required to register their assets at the 17th parliament.

The other 96 lawmakers in the 299-seat Assembly, who maintained their seats by winning the April elections, are not required to file their assets until February next year.

According to the committee, 16 legislators who newly registered their assets with the Assembly have assets worth more than 3 billion won ($2.5 million) and five have assets worth more than 5 billion won ($4.2 million).

But, the number of rich lawmakers in the 17th Assembly is down by half, as 10 new registrants in the previous 16th parliament had fortunes worth more than 5 billion won, the committee said.

The average total assets of new registrants in the present Assembly was 1.1 billion won ($910,000), down 510 million won from the past parliament.

The Millennium Democratic Party’s new enrollees had average assets worth 1.8 billion won ($1.5 million), followed by the Grand National Party (GNP) with 1.42 billion won ($1.2 million), the Uri Party with 987 million won ($820,000), the United Liberal Democrats with 422 million won ($350,000), and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) with 124 million won ($100,000).

Rep. Kim Hyuk-kyu, formerly a trading merchant and governor of South Kyongsang Province, topped the list by registering 10,055 million won ($8.38 million), followed by Rep. Lee Kye-ahn of the ruling party with 8.7 billion won ($7.25 million). Lee had worked for Hyundai Capital as CEO before joining the Uri Party.

Rep. Kim Yang-soo of the GNP found himself at third place on the rich-politician list with 7.9 billion won ($6.5 million).

Rep. Hyun Ae-ja of the DLP was the poorest lawmaker with a debt of 563 million won ($469,000), followed by Rep. Park Hong-soo of the Uri Party with 326 million won ($271,000) and Rep. Kang Ki-kab of the pro-labor party with 234 million won ($195,000).

The Uri Party’s gap between the rich and the poor was wider than others as five of its new registrants were included in the top 10 list, while the other eight lawmakers of the ruling party were in the low-assets list.

A total of 26 new registrants had assets worth less than 100 million won ($83,000) and 10 of the 203 new enrollees had more debt than property.

Reflecting the sluggish economy, the 17th Assembly lawmakers have diversified their investments in stocks, real estate, bank savings and antiques, in sharp contrast to former 16th Assembly lawmakers whose portfolios were composed mostly of stocks and real estate.

im@koreatimes.co.kr