[Asia Economy Reporter Won Dara] The average assets of candidates for the 21st National Assembly were found to be 1.5 billion KRW.
On the 27th, the National Election Commission reported that the total assets (including family assets) of 1,118 candidates who had registered for constituency National Assembly elections by that day amounted to 1.7010873 trillion KRW. The average asset size per person was 1.521475 billion KRW.
Among them, 48 candidates (4.3%) declared assets of 5 billion KRW or more, 351 candidates (31.4%) declared between 1 billion and 5 billion KRW, 204 candidates (18.2%) declared between 500 million and 1 billion KRW, 293 candidates (26.2%) declared between 100 million and 500 million KRW, and 222 candidates (19.9%) declared less than 100 million KRW.
The candidate with the largest assets was Kim Byung-kwan, former chairman of the board of the game company 'Webzen' and a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who declared 231.14449 billion KRW and ran in Bundang-gu Gap, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province.
Next were Park Deok-heum, a member of the United Future Party running in Boeun, Okcheon, Yeongdong, and Goesan counties in Chungbuk, who declared 59.076775 billion KRW, and Jeong Geun, an independent candidate and director of Jeong Geun Eye Hospital running in Jin-gu Gap, Busan, who declared 50.029374 billion KRW.
The Minsheng Party's highest declaration was by member Jang Byung-wan, who declared 9.028063 billion KRW, and the Justice Party's highest was Park Seong-pil, director of Yonsei Phil Dental Clinic, who declared 2.96957 billion KRW.
Fifteen candidates declared having no assets, and 44 candidates declared having more debts than assets.
The candidate with the largest debt was Song Ui-jun, special advisor to the party leader of the National Revolutionary Dividend Party, who declared -2.254015 billion KRW.
The average declared assets by party were: United Future Party 2.64602 billion KRW, Democratic Party 2.258254 billion KRW, Minsheng Party 1.215785 billion KRW, and Justice Party 375.599 million KRW.
Meanwhile, the average assets per candidate for the 20th National Assembly in 2016 were 2.08781 billion KRW.
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