South Korea Requires Officials to Declare Crypto Assets

South Korea requires high-ranking officials to declare crypto assets

The above information was published in the latest announcement of the Korean Ministry of Human Resources Management. Accordingly, the “Civil Servant Ethics System” will become an information portal to manage the process of registering declarations and reviewing assets of government officials.

Previously, some South Korean civil servants had self-declared their cryptocurrency holdings in official government gazettes or on the websites of ministries or parliamentary offices. However, with the “Civil Service Ethics System“, from 2024 this will become a mandatory obligation for all officials.

The announcement about the “Civil Service Ethics System” was posted on the homepage of the Korean Ministry of Human Resources Management on December 27, 2023.

Minister of Human Resources Management Kim Seung-ho shared that:

Implementing public declaration and registration of virtual assets will help improve the transparency of public services.

In the announcement, from June 2024, five major Korean crypto exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, will introduce separate information systems to declare asset holdings cryptocurrency.

The measure comes after South Korean financial regulators passed two bills requiring companies to “disclose” details of their crypto asset holdings in their financial reports. At the same time, exchanges must set up a reserve fund with at least 3 billion won in bank accounts, aimed at protecting investors after many scandals occurred in Korea.

In May 2023, South Korean National Assembly Member and member of the Democratic Party Kim Nam-kuk resigned after being heavily criticized for owning 4.5 million USD of WEMIX tokens – issued by the Wemade blockchain game development. Mr. Kim’s ownership of WEMIX has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, use of inside information and even money laundering risks.

The protective move by Korean lawmakers is made for a reason as the people of this country own up to 98.5 billion USD worth of crypto assets, making an important contribution to promoting market growth altcoins recently.

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