Over a dozen government officials in Gwangmyeong and Siheung have been found to have acquired land in the cities prior to their inclusion in the country's New Town development projects.  

The findings were announced on Wednesday by the municipal governments of Gwangmyeong and Siheung. 

Authorities in the two southwestern Gyeonggi provincial cities had carried out self-inspections since suspicions surfaced regarding former and current employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation buying properties in the cities before the project designation last month. 

Gwangmyeong Mayor Park Seung-won revealed in a media briefing that six officials in the city government were confirmed to have purchased land between 2015 and last year, adding whether they used any insider information in doing so is under investigation. 

In a separate briefing, Siheung Mayor Im Byoung-taek said over two-thousand officials of the municipal government have been probed and eight of them were found to have purchased land through last year either under their own names or their family members'.