Ro Jae-hun, South Korea’s newly appointed ambassador to China, delivers his inaugural address during an inauguration ceremony at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on Jan. 16. Yonhap
A government ethics committee on Friday disclosed the personal assets of 362 senior public officials, with Seoul’s ambassador to Beijing topping the list with over 50 billion won ($34.8 million) in reported wealth.
Ambassador Ro Jae-hun reported total assets worth 53 billion won, including 13.2 billion won in real estate and 21.3 billion won in securities, according to the wealth disclosure list compiled by the Government Ethics Committee. The list covers senior officials whose positions changed between July and November last year.
Ro, the son of late former President Roh Tae-woo, took office in October.
Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, ranked second with total assets of 38.4 billion won, including 31 billion won in bank deposits and 2.95 billion won in real estate.
Lee, who had originally reported 1.36 billion won worth of securities, said he sold all of his stocks in companies listed in South Korea when he took office in August.
The disclosures also included Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young who reported 23.8 billion won worth of assets, while Minister of SMEs and Startups Han Seong-sook, who previously served as the chief executive of online portal giant Naver, disclosed 22.1 billion won in assets.
While public officials’ assets are usually regularly disclosed at the end of every month, the latest announcement was delayed for about four months due to a fire at a state data center in September that paralyzed government services.