Some senior government officials were found to hold U.S. stocks worth from several billions of won to more than 10 billion won. That contrasts with recent moves by foreign exchange authorities to manage FX supply and demand by pointing to overseas stock investments by Korean retail investors trading U.S. stocks as a main cause of the strong dollar-won rate and by pressuring securities firms' overseas investment marketing.
According to ad hoc asset disclosures under the jurisdiction of the Government Public Officials Ethics Committee that the Ministry of Personnel Management released on the 30th, many senior officials were confirmed to hold large amounts of U.S. listed shares (including spouses and direct lineal ascendants and descendants, with declared values combined). The officials disclosed this time were those added to the disclosure list between Jul. 2 and Nov. 1 last year.
The person with the largest holdings of U.S. stocks was Roh Tae-woo's eldest son, Noh Jae-heon, ambassador to China at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Noh's U.S. listed shares amounted to about 12 billion won.
Noh himself declared 6.04 billion won worth, including Microsoft (2,015 shares) and Nvidia (17,588 shares), while his eldest son declared 6.07 billion won worth, including Microsoft (3,602 shares) and Nvidia (13,295 shares).
Lee Jang-hyung, Blue House legal secretary, also held about 9.47 billion won in U.S. stocks. Lee's family was characterized by concentrated investments in Tesla shares. He held 9,666 shares (4.14 billion won), his eldest son held 6,206 shares (2.66 billion won), and his eldest daughter held 6,209 shares (2.66 billion won).
Among former senior prosecutors, investments in the U.S. stock market by the family of former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung stood out. In particular, the spouse held Nvidia (3,174 shares), Tesla (1,946 shares), Amazon (1,203 shares), and Microsoft (472 shares), totaling 4.02 billion won, and the eldest son and eldest daughter each declared about 150 million won. Shim did not hold U.S. stocks personally, but the family's combined holdings were about 4.17 billion won.
In the government policy coordination office, the family of Noh Hye-won, deputy head of the Prosecution Reform Promotion Team, also had a high share of U.S. stock investments. Noh personally held only Berkshire Hathaway Class B (71 shares) worth 48 million won, but the spouse held about 1.3 billion won worth, including Microsoft (210 shares), Alphabet (740 shares), Amazon (150 shares), JPMorgan Chase (60 shares), and BlackRock (32 shares). The three children each declared U.S. stocks worth around 30 million won.
Among financial regulators, Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, invested in the U.S. stock market. Lee was confirmed to hold 150 million won worth, including Recursion Pharmaceuticals (7,150 shares), SoFi Technologies (110 shares), Apple (100 shares), On Holding (140 shares), and Walt Disney (25 shares).
In politics, critics said this behavior does not align with the government's recent response on the exchange rate. Park Sung-hoon, chief spokesperson of the People Power Party, said, "The asset disclosures of senior officials in the Lee Jae-myung administration are closer to a 'list of U.S. stock investors,'" and added, "Betting hundreds of billions of won on the growth of U.S. corporations, not the future of Korean corporations, is a strong signal of distrust in the future and vision of the Korean economy."