President Lee Slams KCCI's "Millionaires Leaving Korea" Report... "Severe Accountability for Producing and Spreading Fake News"

President Lee voices strong criticism via social media
"An organization established by law, the KCCI, doing such things... We must establish safeguards to prevent recurrence"

On the 7th, President Lee Jaemyung criticized the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry for distributing material suggesting that "a large number of high-net-worth individuals are leaving Korea due to the burden of inheritance tax," saying, "The act of creating and spreading fake news to pursue private interests and attack government policy deserves condemnation."

Yonhap News Agency

On this day, President Lee shared an article on X titled "The exodus of millionaires from Korea that does not even exist... Conservative media swallowing an outdated bait," and said, "I cannot believe that the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an official organization established by law, is openly doing such things," stressing, "We must hold them strictly accountable and put in place safeguards to prevent any recurrence."

The article shared by President Lee criticized the fact that there are errors in the statistics and interpretations presented as key evidence in the press release titled "Korea ranks 4th in the world for outflow of wealthy individuals due to inheritance tax burden... 'Improving payment methods' is the realistic solution," which the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry distributed on the 4th.

The article reported that the press release of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry quoted the British immigration consulting firm Henley & Partners as saying that "the provisional net outflow of high-net-worth individuals from Korea surged from 1,200 in 2024 to 2,400 in 2025, ranking 4th in the world."

However, it pointed out that there is a critical factual error, noting that the cited report does not directly mention inheritance tax as a factor, that the figure of "2,400 people" is only a "provisional estimate," and that there are questions about its reliability. It went on to criticize several conservative media outlets for using the material as it was.

Meanwhile, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for easing the inheritance tax burden and emphasized the need for more flexible payment methods, proposing measures such as extending the period over which inheritance tax can be paid in installments and introducing payment in the form of listed shares and other assets.