President Lee Jae Myung’s wealth increased nearly 50 percent over the past year, driven largely by book royalties ahead of the presidential election, according to data released Thursday.
Disclosures by the Government Public Ethics Committee showed Lee’s total assets stood at 4.98 billion won ($3.3 million) as of the end of 2025, marking a net increase of 1.66 billion won from a year earlier. The figure excluded nominal changes such as real estate price adjustments.
Royalty income accounted for the largest share of the increase.
Lee reported 1.56 billion won in book sale earnings, mainly tied to his campaign-period publication “The People Do It in the End” (direct translation). Income from his earlier essay collection published in 2022 was also partly reflected.
Additionally, Lee reported 250 million won in family-event income, widely understood to be wedding gifts received during his son’s marriage last year.
Lee jointly owns a single apartment in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, with his wife, with an official value of 1.68 billion won, up 15.7 percent from a year earlier.
Wealth among senior government officials also rose.
The average assets of 48 senior presidential aides came to 2.75 billion won. Presidential secretary for legal affairs Lee Jang-hyung reported the highest amount at 13.41 billion won, reflecting gains in Tesla shares held under his and his children’s names.
Among Cabinet members, Minister of SMEs and Startups Han Seong-sook reported the largest assets at 22.3 billion won, followed by Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young with 17.7 billion won. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok reported assets of 330 million won.
Across 1,903 senior public officials subject to disclosure, average reported assets stood at 2.09 billion won, up about 148 million won from the previous year.
Meanwhile, the richest public figure comes from the National Assembly.
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the main opposition People Power Party once again topped the list, reporting assets of 125.7 billion won, according to disclosures by the National Assembly’s Ethics Committee. Most of his wealth is tied to shares in AhnLab, an internet security firm Ahn founded in 1995.
Rep. Park Duk-hyum of the People Power Party followed with 54.7 billion won, while Rep. Park Jeung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea ranked third.
Excluding two lawmakers with assets exceeding 50 billion won, the average wealth of lawmakers stood at 2.88 billion won, up from 2.65 billion won a year earlier.
A total of 88.5 percent of lawmakers reported an increase in assets. The most common increase range was between 100 million and 500 million won.
Rep. Koh Dong-jin recorded the largest increase, with his wealth rising by 5.68 billion won, followed by Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun and Rep. Park Chung-kwon.
Some lawmakers reported negative net worth, including Rep. Jeong Jun-ho and Rep. Jin Sun-mee, both of the Democratic Party, mainly due to financial liabilities.
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