Suspected Public Official Speculation in Sejongseo? ... Yeonseo-myeon Smart National Industrial Complex Investigation Launched

Location map of Yeonseo-myeon Smart National Industrial Complex. Provided by Sejong City

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Sejong City is investigating whether there was any speculative activity by public officials in the Yeonseo-myeon Smart National Industrial Complex area.

According to the city on the 10th, the area around Wachon-ri, Yeonseo-myeon (3.3 million square meters) was selected as a candidate site for the national industrial complex in 2018 and was designated as a land transaction permission zone in September of the same year. Compensation is scheduled to begin next year.

However, several months before the designation as a land transaction permission zone, prefabricated panel houses (temporary buildings) had already started to be erected on the site, and saplings were systematically planted in various locations.

Also, between January and August 2018, the number of land transactions, which had been sparse until then, surged to over 7,000 cases. This is a point where speculative activity based on information prior to the designation of the national industrial complex is suspected.

Accordingly, the city plans to form a dedicated task force (TF) led by Vice Mayor Ryu Im-cheol to investigate whether there was actual speculative activity in the Yeonseo-myeon national industrial complex. The task force will operate in collaboration with related departments such as the city audit committee and the land information division.

Currently, the Sejong Police have recently requested data on building permits and ownership relations in the Yeonseo-myeon national industrial complex area in 2018 from the city, and are reportedly examining whether there was speculative activity by public officials including government central ministries, city officials, and LH employees.

Some argue that since Sejong is a newly developed city created with large-scale government funding, it should be included in the scope of the government's full-scale investigation into speculative activities by public officials.

In fact, on the 6th, a petition titled "Please dispatch an LH employee land speculation government investigation team to Sejong City as well" appeared on the Blue House National Petition site. The core of the petition is that Sejong should be included in the government joint investigation.

Meanwhile, the Yeonseo-myeon national industrial complex is being developed to attract leading companies in smart city, autonomous driving mobility, and bio healthcare sectors to Sejong. The development period is from 2023 to 2027, with a total project cost of approximately 1.5 trillion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.