In order to ensure ethics, integrity and transparency of public service, the Korean government requires asset declaration of public officials who are political appointees or in grade 4 (director-level) or higher as well as other officials in select areas.

Over 220,000 Korean public officials subject to mandatory asset declaration are required to declare their assets through the Public Ethics and Transparency Initiative (PETI) website (www.peti.go.kr) by end of February each year for change in assets for the previous calendar year. The change in assets must include the assets belonging to the public official and his/her immediate family members including spouse, parents, children. The objective of the public service ethics program in Korea is to promote fairness in the execution of official duties and establish ethics guidelines for public officials as public servants by
creating an environment that prevents conflicts between public and private interests, such as unlawful property acquisition by public officials and
collusive ties between the government and businesses and is stipulated in the Public Officials Ethics Act. The asset changes of political appointees and senior civil servants in grade 1 are publicly announced in late March.

The system is integrated with financial instiution and administrative data allowing financial and real estate information of those who have signed disclousre agreement to be automatically registed in the asset declaration system.