Rich in Korea
About 30 percent of Koreans think of 1 billion won (US$945,224) as the minimum amount of money for them to be considered rich.
Gallup Korea conducted a survey, between March 24 and 27, on the minimum standard to be called rich. The survey was answered by 1,119 respondents nationwide, all of them aged 19 or older.
Ten percent said that they had to have at least 2 billion won to be deemed rich. Another 10 percent mentioned 10 billion won, followed by 3 billion (8 percent), 0.5 billion (7 percent) and 5 billion (6 percent). By range, 7 percent of the respondents mentioned under 0.5 billion won, 8 percent between 0.5 billion and 1 billion won, 31 percent between 1 billion and 2 billion won, 19 percent between 2 billion and 5 billion won, 7 percent between 5 billion and 10 billion won, 10 percent over 10 billion won, and 1 percent over 100 billion won. Eighteen percent of the participants refused to answer the question.
In summary, the average expected wealth of a rich person is 2.5 billion won with the top and bottom 5 percent counted out, which is double the amount found in a similar survey carried out in 1993. Still, 45 percent of the respondents answered that 1 billion won or less is also enough money. The percentage had been 75 percent in 1993.
In the meantime, 66 percent of them said that they can only find a few rich persons worthy of respect. Only 19 percent said there are a number of men of wealth to be respected, and 15 percent did not give any answer.
The late former Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Ju-yung was picked out as the most respected wealthy person in Korea by 13 percent of the respondents, followed by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee (10 percent), former Yuhan Corporation Chairman Yu Il-han (6 percent), Ahn Chul-soo, co-leader of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (2 percent), former Samsung Group Chairman Lee Byeong-cheol (2 percent), lawmaker Chung Mong-joon (1 percent) and the late former POSCO Chairman Park Tae-joon (1 percent).