Kim Tae-won, senior secretary for youth affairs at Cheong Wa Dae. [Cheong Wa Dae]
Kim Tae-won, senior secretary for youth affairs at Cheong Wa Dae. [Cheong Wa Dae]

Kim Tae-won, the 46-year-old senior secretary for youth affairs at Cheong Wa Dae, topped the latest government disclosure of senior officials' assets, reporting a total net worth of 16.1 billion won ($12.2 million) — roughly 320 times the average wealth of a South Korean young adult.

The Government Ethics Committee published the figures Friday in the official gazette as part of its periodic asset disclosure for senior public officials.

Born in 1980, Kim graduated from Korea University with a degree in sociology before building a career at Google Korea, where he rose to senior director of global business. He is also a former executive at Innored, an independent digital advertising agency he joined in 2024. Earlier, during the Park Geun-hye administration in 2013, he served as a youth mentor on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Youth Affairs.

Kim was appointed as the inaugural senior secretary when President Lee Jae Myung established the Office of the Senior Secretary for Youth Affairs under the Presidential Chief of Staff on July 16.

At the time, Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said the office was created "with the aim of actively resolving the problems facing young people and presenting a vision for their future," adding that Kim was expected to "develop innovative future strategies and creative youth policies from the perspective of young people."

Shares accounted for the largest share of Kim's declared assets, totaling 11.9 billion won.

Under his own name, Kim holds 11.6 billion won in equities — including 2,338 shares of LG Uplus, 650 shares of Samsung Electronics, 583 shares of Bank of America and 322 shares of Microsoft — while shares held by his spouse and other family members amount to about 300 million won.

He also declared an apartment in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, valued at 2.38 billion won, and bank deposits of 1.53 billion won.

Kim's wealth is expected to draw scrutiny over how closely he can relate to the housing insecurity and employment struggles that define the lives of many young Koreans. His declared net worth is 320 times the average wealth of someone in his target demographic.

A 2024 government survey on youth living conditions, conducted by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, found that South Koreans between the ages of 19 and 34 earned an average annual income of 26.25 million won and held average assets of 50.12 million won.

In the same disclosure, Oh Seok-geun, Busan's vice mayor for future innovation, ranked second with 8 billion won, while Shim Uk-gi, head of the Daejeon Regional Tax Office, came in third at 5.71 billion won.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com