The trade ministry vowed to hold the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry(KCCI) accountable for the spread of what it called "fake news."

Kim Jung-kwan, minister of Trade, Industry and Resources, said during an emergency meeting of the nation's six economic organizations at the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation in Jongno District that the department had launched an audit into a controversial report the KCCI released earlier this month.

Kim also apologized for the report's release, which linked wealth outflows to South Korea's inheritance tax despite the absence of that connection in the source material.

Kim said the KCCI had quoted British investment migration consultancy Henley and Partners, whose reliability several overseas media outlets and research institutions have questioned.

In the report released last Tuesday, the KCCI said, citing Henley and Partners, that two-thousand-400 high-net-worth individuals left South Korea due to inheritance tax burdens last year, or double from 2024.

Kim said that instead of basing its report on data from a professional research institute, KCCI had used statistics from the British firm without proper verification.

The minister said the chamber had arbitrarily cited inheritance taxes as the reason behind wealth migration, even though the data made no mention of it.