Kim Jin-ae: "Kim Hong-gul says pre-sale rights are not assets... A person lacking common sense"

"Even if Property Is Between Spouses, Reporting Must Be Clear"

Kim Jin-ae, Floor Leader of the Open Democratic Party, is speaking at a press conference related to the 4th supplementary budget held at the National Assembly on the 16th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] On the 16th, Kim Jin-ae, floor leader of the Open Democratic Party, sharply criticized Kim Hong-gul, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who became embroiled in controversy for failing to report his spouse's apartment pre-sale rights during the general election, saying, "Isn't he just completely lacking common sense?" Earlier, Kim had explained the omission by saying he did not know that pre-sale rights were subject to asset reporting.

On the same day, Kim appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and said, "They say it was a mistake by the staff or the spouse, but that's just an excuse."

He pointed out, "When it comes to assets between spouses, it is proper to clearly disclose them during asset reporting, and the idea that pre-sale rights are not assets makes me think he is really lacking common sense."

He continued, "The reason this was revealed is probably because the deposits increased," adding, "About 1.1 billion won came into the bank account (from the sale of the pre-sale rights), so the deposits increased. That’s how they found out the pre-sale rights were missing."

When asked if reducing asset reporting would be beneficial, Kim replied, "Honestly, if you have too many assets, it can be a burden during elections," and said, "At the time of the general election, Kim reported assets worth around 6 billion won and owned several real estate properties. The Democratic Party paid close attention to this, so it’s a situation where suspicion of intentional omission can arise."

He added, "If someone has been active for a long time or is a businessperson with considerable wealth, people tend to overlook it, but if someone was a salaried worker or had little income before and suddenly has this much wealth, it raises suspicion."

Regarding Jo Soo-jin, a member of the People Power Party, who is also involved in deliberate asset omission, he said, "Jo is not very old and is a former journalist, but her assets increased from about 1.8 billion won to about 3 billion won after being elected," and emphasized, "Especially, it is really incomprehensible that Jo omitted about 500 million won in bonds held by herself and her spouse." He stressed, "The Election Commission should investigate this matter."