Minister Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which distributed a press release on the "overseas outflow of high-net-worth individuals in Korea," will face strong measures including an audit and disciplinary action.
The Minister said on his social media on the 7th, "KORCHAM, by circulating information that lacks credibility and has not even been fact-checked, caused serious confusion for the public, the market, and government policy overall."
He added, "In particular, given that unverified information spread maliciously, this clearly constitutes fake news, and we will take resolute measures beyond expressing strong regret."
The Minister said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), the competent ministry overseeing KORCHAM, will immediately conduct an audit into the drafting and distribution process of the press release and the facts overall, and will hold those responsible strictly accountable based on the findings.
He went on, "We will implement strong and effective response measures to prevent similar cases from recurring," adding, "In cooperation with relevant agencies and major business groups, we will also actively seek institutional and administrative steps to block the very structure through which unverified information or fake news circulates."
Earlier, KORCHAM issued a press release on the 3rd titled "Analysis of inheritance tax revenue outlook and study on the effects of diversifying payment methods." Citing a survey by the U.K. immigration consultancy "Henley & Partners," the document said the number of high-net-worth individuals who left Korea last year was 2,400, double from the previous year and the fourth highest in the world. KORCHAM pointed to the burden of inheritance tax as the cause.
But critics said Henley & Partners' survey method was so poor that the results were hard to trust, and the original report did not specify any causal link that "people leave Korea because of the inheritance tax."
Starting with President Lee Jae-myung, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol, Minister Kim Jung-kwan, and the National Tax Service have issued a series of messages criticizing the claims as "fake news." The president said on X (formerly Twitter) on the 7th, "Deliberate fake news intended to cloud the judgment of the sovereign people is an enemy of democracy." The National Tax Service issued a press release that day, countering, "In the past three years (2022–2024), only 416 people in Korea who moved abroad held assets of 1 billion won or more."
KORCHAM issued an official statement apologizing, saying it "failed to sufficiently verify external statistics."