The government has identified seven more public officials suspected of buying land for speculation, bringing the total number to 20, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Thursday, declaring a "war" against real estate crime.

Chung said at a press conference that all the 20 people work for the state housing developer, Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH), and purchased land mainly in the Gwangmyeong-Siheung area of Gyeonggi Province, which has been designated as the site of a major public housing development project.

Two civic groups first raised the allegations of land speculation against more than a dozen LH officials last week, saying they used inside information to buy about 10 billion won ($8.88 million) worth of farmland in the two cities between April 2018 and June 2020, before any development plans were announced.

A government task force confirmed 13 of the LH officials identified by the civic groups and found seven more after looking into 14,000 employees of LH and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Chung said.

"The government is declaring war against real estate crime," the prime minister said, announcing the results of the government's preliminary investigation. "We will come up with special measures to sternly punish illegal and unfair practices and firmly enforce them."

The scandal has sparked public outrage a month before the Seoul and Busan mayoral elections on April 7, as housing prices continue to climb nationwide despite the government's efforts to tamp them down.

President Moon Jae-in, whose single five-year term ends in May 2022, has ordered his government to get to the bottom of the case and condemned the alleged speculation by public officials as "unacceptable."

The prime minister told the press conference that Land Minister Byeon Chang-heum "cannot be free from responsibility" over the scandal, referring to some of the land purchases being made when he was head of LH.

He said the investigation uncovered suspicious transactions in other development sites that are part of the government's third new town project, as well as purchases of apartment units and other homes in addition to land.

The task force will transfer all of the material it found to a special investigative team led by the police to continue the probe, which will be expanded to include spouses and relatives of the officials in question, he said.

The task force will also proceed to investigate public servants at local governments and public corporations and hand over the results to the investigative team.

"Today's announcement of the LH investigation results is just the beginning," Chung said. "The government will go through all suspicions and allegations with a fine-tooth comb and leave no stone unturned."

Cheong Wa Dae made a separate statement on the outcome of its own initial probe into whether any of its officials are involved in suspected land transactions.

"It's been confirmed that there are no transactions at all suspected to be real estate speculation," Chung Man-ho, senior secretary to President Moon Jae-in for public communication, said.

Secretaries and others in higher positions as well as their families, totaling 368, were subject to checks on relevant data, he added.

Cheong Wa Dae is also looking into recent land transactions by lower-grade officials and their families, 3,714 in total.

As soon as the probe is completed, the presidential office plans to make public its results, Chung said. (Yonhap)