An independent online press company said Sunday it plans to unveil the list of 30 more South Koreans who are suspected of setting up shell companies in offshore tax havens to evade taxes.

Since late May, the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism has released names of 18 high-profile South Koreans, including a son of a former president, who set up paper companies in tax haven regions for alleged tax evasion or stashing away slush funds.

“We’ve identified additional names of 30 suspected Koreans ... and we plan to release new lists possibly twice a week,” said Kim Yong-jin, the chief director at the KCIJ.

The KCIJ has already released a list of 18 high-profile figures out of 245 South Koreans who set up paper companies in tax havens ― a state or territory where certain types of taxes are not levied or are imposed at very low rates.

It also said on Thursday that a North Korean ran a shell company in a tax haven region in its latest revelation of a list that included three paper companies believed to be linked with Pyongyang.

Chun Jae-kook, the eldest son of former president Chun Doo-hwan, who took power through a military coup in 1980, was found to establish a ghost company in the British Virgin Islands in 2004 amid speculation that he may have tried to hide his father’s massive slush funds, which the government has failed to collect for years.

The findings are based on a joint investigative journalism project by the KCIJ and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in which the KCIJ has taken part since April. (Yonhap News)