President Lee Jae-myung on the 3rd ordered a complete halt to the sale of state-owned assets. Chae Hwi-young, government Spokesperson and Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said Lee issued an "emergency presidential directive" that day, telling officials, "For asset sales that are currently underway or under review, redetermine whether to proceed after a full reexamination."
Lee said, "As a rule, refrain from sales except for unnecessary assets," adding, "If it is unavoidable to sell assets that need to be sold, obtain prior approval from the prime minister."
◇ Presidential office raises concern over "state assets being sold off cheaply"
According to a compilation of reporting from relevant ministries, Lee did not carry out official events that day and prepared for a policy speech on the government budget bill scheduled for the following day at the National Assembly. After completing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit schedule in Gyeongju last week, Lee reviewed lawmakers' points raised during this year's National Assembly audits while preparing the speech, and was said to have focused on "state property being sold off cheaply."
Kim Nam-joon, presidential office Spokesperson, said in a text notice to the press that day, "Concerns have been raised in the National Assembly audits and the media that the nation's assets are being sold at fire-sale prices," adding, "Accordingly, President Lee urgently ordered all ministries and public institutions to suspend government asset sales." He added, "The responsible ministries will swiftly identify the facts related to cheap disposals of state property and prepare measures to improve the system."
During this year's Strategy and Finance Committee audit in the National Assembly, criticism was raised that sales of state-owned real estate surged under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, and that many cases suspected of being fire-sale disposals were included. Park Min-gyu, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out at the audit on Oct. 13, "More than half (of state property) in 2024 and 2025 was sold at cheap prices."
According to Park's office, last year real estate in Amnam-dong, Seo-gu, Busan, was sold for 15.1 billion won. The appraised value of the property was 27.3 billion won. Real estate in Samsan-dong, Nam-gu, Ulsan, was also awarded at 5.9 billion won, about half of its appraised value (11.7 billion won). The difference between the total winning bids and appraised values for state property in 2023 was only 12.3 billion won, but last year it increased to 64.7 billion won. This year, as of July, the gap between appraised and winning bid prices for sold state property reached 47.7 billion won.
Park argued that as individual properties failed to fetch fair prices, losses from state property sales have grown. Park said, "Looking at state real estate sales over the past five years, the number of sales was in the 100s from 2021 to 2022, but rose to 349 in 2023 and 800 in 2024," adding, "The number of cases awarded below appraised value totaled 21 in 2021 and 2022 combined, but from 2024 to 2025 more than half were sold cheaply."
According to the Korea Institute of Public Finance, last year's state property sales totaled 77 trillion won, the largest ever. That was up 31.7 trillion won from the previous year (45.3 trillion won. Lee Sang-min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute of Public Finance, said, "When disposing of state property above a certain scale, prior review by the National Assembly is necessary," adding, "Lists of state property sales above a certain scale in the settlement of account should be disclosed with their reasons."
Lee has long shown a skeptical view of selling state property. In 2022, when he was a candidate for party leader, Lee wrote on his social media, "The government's sale of state property to the private sector is not 'tightening the belt' but 'fattening a privileged few,'" adding, "We will push to amend the State Property Act so that the Ministry of Economy and Finance cannot unilaterally sell state property without an agreement with the National Assembly."
◇ Reading also as a sign of Lee's no-confidence in economic officials
Some interpret the president's emergency directive as showing no-confidence in economic officials. In the directive, Lee ordered that unavoidable sales of state-owned assets receive approval from Prime Minister Kim Min-seok.
Under the current State Property Act, the Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance has overall responsibility for managing and disposing of state property. Management and disposal of state property are decided by the State Property Policy Review Committee, whose Chairperson is the Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF). In addition, Jeong Jeong-hoon, the president of the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), which manages state property, is also a former MOEF official who served as tax policy director.
On this, Park said at the audit, "The person who designed the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's ultra-rich tax cut came in as the head of the Asset Management Corporation and sold vast amounts of state land cheaply."
From Lee's perspective, the current controversy over state property being sold cheaply stems from the "plan to promote the sale and utilization of state property" pushed by then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho in 2022. It appears Lee judged it would be difficult for MOEF to correct itself and handed the keys of state asset management to Prime Minister Kim.
The fact that even the MOEF, the responsible ministry, had no prior sense of this until Minister Chae Hwi-young announced the emergency directive that day also bolsters this interpretation.
Lee views the previous administration's aggressive sale of state-owned assets as an administrative measure to make up for tax revenue shortfalls caused by tax cut policy. In the past, Lee said, "If fiscal soundness is important, the first step should be to withdraw the 'super-rich tax cut' that is expected to reduce tax revenue by more than 13 trillion won a year," emphasizing that one-off sales of state-owned assets will not solve the decline in tax revenue.
KAMCO President Jeong Jeong-hoon responded to these points by saying, "Tax policy and the plan to promote the sale of state property were announced in 2022, and tax revenue shortfalls began in 2023," adding, "In the case of private contracts, we receive 100% of the appraised value as is, but when we conduct open bidding, the price goes down." He explained that the widening gap between winning bids and appraised values for state property is due to open bidding.