The government has identified 28 more public sector employees who bought land at "new town" development sites, including 23 suspected of engaging in speculative transactions, an official said Friday.

Choi Chang-won, vice minister of government policy coordination at the Prime Minister's Office, said the 28 public servants and public corporation employees were uncovered during the second stage of an inquiry into a massive land speculation scandal centered on the state housing developer, the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH).

"Of the 28, we suspect speculation by 23 and will refer them (to the police) for investigation," Choi, who heads an interagency government task force in charge of dealing with the LH scandal, said during a press conference.

The remaining five are believed to have inherited the land from family members and their cases will be transferred to a government investigative team as reference material, Choi said.

The probe's second round covered 8,780 public servants at local governments involved in housing development projects and employees of public corporations tied to the land in Siheung and Gwangmyeong, both south of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province.

In the first round, the task force identified 20 LH officials suspected of land speculation.

Choi said 237 of the 8,780 people subject to the second phase probe purchased apartment units or other homes near the development sites. (Yonhap)