Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will dispose of three of the four dwellings she currently owns.
According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) on the 9th, the Minister put a single-family dwelling in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, and an officetel in Gangnam District, Seoul, on the market before and after the confirmation hearing. To this, a decision was made to additionally sell an apartment in Jamsil-dong, Songpa District.
The Minister oversaw services broadly at NHN, the predecessor of Naver, serving as head of the Search Quality Center and head of the Service Division. After serving as service managing director (vice president) in 2015, in 2017 she became Naver's first female CEO and led management for six years through 2022.
A review of the Public Officials Ethics Committee asset disclosures shows that the Minister, who came from the private sector, holds a total of 4.07808 billion won in stocks under her name, including about 2.3 billion won in Naver shares from the company she led.
She also owns four dwellings: an apartment in Songpa District, Seoul; an officetel in Gangnam District; a single-family dwelling in Jongno District; and a single-family dwelling in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province.
The Songpa District apartment was also raised during the confirmation hearing. Because the mother lives in the apartment rent-free, controversy arose among opposition parties over "backdoor gifting." In March 2022, when the Minister moved her residence to a single-family dwelling in Jongno District, she registered her mother as the head of household for the Songpa District apartment.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "The single-family dwelling located in Gwangsa-dong, Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, is co-owned by the Minister and family, so it is not subject to retention or disposal."
The Minister, who owns the most dwellings among government Cabinet members with four, has been mentioned whenever the issue of multi-homeowning public officials arises. It is seen as a decision to dispose of all but the currently occupied dwelling in line with the Lee Jae-myung administration's policy of regulating multi-homeowners.
In addition to the Minister, Minister Song Mi-ryung of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is also pushing to sell a dwelling inherited from her mother. Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung is reported to have put an apartment in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on the market, and Chunchugwan Director Kim Sang-ho has reportedly listed a multi-family dwelling in Gangnam District, Seoul.