'Speculation Allegations' Police Investigation Expands to Jeonbuk, Sejong, and Yongin

Six LH Employees Summoned for Investigation Completed
Remaining to Be Finished Within This Week
Investigation Expands to Other Regions

Officials from the National Demolition Residents' Council held a press conference with a vehicle parade on the 23rd in front of the LH Seoul Regional Headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, urging measures for demolition residents and condemning LH employees' real estate speculation, calling for the eradication of real estate corruption. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The police investigation into the 3rd New Town speculation allegations is shifting from Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) to Jeonbuk, Sejong, and Yongin in Gyeonggi Province. These areas have many local development prospects and have already been implicated in a series of public official speculation allegations.

According to the police on the 23rd, the fastest-moving case currently is the 3rd New Town speculation allegations involving 15 current and former LH employees, first exposed by the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun). The Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency has completed summons investigations for six individuals as of the day before, and plans to finish investigations for the remaining individuals within this week. If it is determined that insider information was used, they intend to apply for arrest warrants.

Currently, the investigation is focused on the metropolitan area, including the 3rd New Town, but the scope will expand to local regions in the future. Among the cases under investigation, 23 cases involving 81 people are related to the 3rd New Town, while the remaining 38 cases involving 228 people are speculation cases related to regional development projects. The police are conducting simultaneous investigations nationwide through provincial police agencies. In Sejong, a speculation scandal has emerged around the candidate site for the ‘Sejong Smart National Industrial Complex (Smart Industrial Complex)’ spanning approximately 2,776,000 square meters in the Yeonseo-myeon area. Not only Sejong city officials and Ministry of the Interior and Safety officials but also a former Administrator of the Administrative City Construction Agency (LHCA), who oversaw Sejong’s development, are under police investigation. Among them, the former LHCA Administrator held a vice-ministerial position and is known as the most high-profile figure currently under investigation by the police.

In Jeonbuk, signs of large-scale ‘expedition speculation’ related to the 3rd New Town have been detected, centered on the LH Jeonbuk Regional Headquarters. It has been confirmed that relatives and neighbors connected to specific LH employees have massively purchased land. Additionally, a link to a Blue House Security Office employee recently referred for investigation has been discovered, raising suspicions of large-scale expedition speculation. It is also notable that the Sejong Smart Industrial Complex speculation allegations involve the Sejong Police Agency, Chungnam Police Agency, and LH Jeonbuk Headquarters, while the Jeonbuk and Southern Gyeonggi Police Agencies are cooperating on the investigation. Yongin is considered the area with the most development prospects in the metropolitan area, including the semiconductor cluster and Platform City projects. Yongin City recently requested investigations into three public officials who purchased land near the semiconductor cluster development area.

As the police investigation expands into a ‘land-centered’ probe, investigations tailored to local development themes are expected to become more active. Choi Seung-ryeol, Director of the Investigation Bureau at the National Police Agency, said, "We are analyzing real estate to select investigation targets," adding, "Once investigation targets emerge from analyzing land transaction data, they will be assigned to each provincial police agency for thorough verification one by one."

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