By Kim Hayeon 

Forty-one Koreans are on this year's World's Billionaires List of the American business magazine Forbes. 

Released on April 5, the list has Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Kim Beom-su, founder of the messaging app Kakao, as Korea's richest people with USD 9.1 billion (KRW 11.9 trillion) each, landing them both in 223rd place.

Seo Jung-jin, cofounder of the drugmaker Celltrion, ranked 343rd with USD 7 billion (KRW 8.53 trillion), while Kwon Hyuk-bin, creator of the video game developer and publisher Smilegate, was 363rd with USD 6.8 billion (KRW 8.29 trillion).  

The newest Korean additions to the list were Song Chi-hyung, founder and chairman of Dunamu, which runs the cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, and Dunamu Vice Chairman Kim Hyoung-nyon. Song was 801th with USD 3.7 billion (KRW 4.51 trillion) and Kim 1,579th with USD 1.9 billion (KRW 2.31 trillion). 

Lee Seung-gun, founder and CEO of Viva Republica, which operates the finance app Toss, is the youngest Korean at age 40 to join the Forbes list with USD 12 billion (KRW 1.46 trillion). 

Meanwhile, Tesla founder Elon Musk topped the list this year for the first time with USD 219 billion (KRW 266.6 trillion). Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his four-year reign at the top end, finishing second with USD 171 billion (KRW 208.2 trillion). 

The Forbes list this year had 2,668 billionaires, down from 2,755 last year, and the number of Korean billionaires also fell from 44 to 41. 

The magazine announces its annual list of the world's richest people each worth over USD 1 billion (KRW 1.22 trillion).

hayeounk8@korea.kr