Ahead of the Election, 'Soothing Public Opinion'... Ruling Party and Government Focus on LH Investigation and Recurrence Prevention Efforts

Lee Nak-yeon "Pursuing Measures to Confiscate LH Unjust Profits"
Jung Se-kyun "Preparing Real Estate Structural Reform Measures"
Government to Announce LH Recurrence Prevention Plan Next Week
Accelerating Supply Measures... Urban Candidate Sites Revealed

Lee Nak-yeon, the Standing Election Committee Chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, is giving a speech at the campaign kickoff rally for Park Young-sun, the Democratic Party candidate for Seoul mayor, held in front of the G Plus Tower in Guro Digital Complex, Guro-gu, Seoul, on the first day of official election campaigning for the April 7 by-elections. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The Democratic Party of Korea and the government are focusing daily on devising measures to quell public outrage over the speculation allegations involving employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) ahead of the Seoul mayoral by-election. The government plans to announce measures to prevent a recurrence of the LH scandal and public redevelopment candidate sites as early as next week.

On the 27th, Lee Nak-yeon, the Standing Election Committee Chair of the Democratic Party, mentioned on his social media (SNS) the amendments to the Korea Land and Housing Corporation Act and the Special Act on Public Housing, which passed the National Assembly on the 24th, stating, "The provisions do not include retroactive application to LH employees who caused this incident," and criticized, "This fails to fully heed the public's demand for strict punishment of public officials' wrongdoing."

As dissatisfaction spread over the National Assembly's decision not to apply the amendments retroactively, making it impossible to recover the unfair profits of LH employees who caused the incident, Lee expressed his intention to push for re-amendment. He emphasized, "We will pursue measures to confiscate unjust gains either by amending the law or enacting a special law."

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun also posted on SNS that "Although the Government Joint Special Investigation Headquarters (Special Investigation Unit) is investigating with utmost determination, it is also true that it seems insufficient to meet the public's expectations," urging, "Please conduct the investigation more swiftly and thoroughly." He promised, "We will prepare irreversible real estate structural reform measures with stronger laws and systems to prevent land and houses from becoming targets of speculation."

The government appears to be focusing on 'soothing public opinion' in consideration of the public anger triggered by the LH scandal. Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, emphasized at the real estate market inspection meeting held the previous day, "This time, we are determined to root out typical illegal, irregular, and unfair speculation in the real estate market and are preparing fundamental measures."

The ruling party and government plan to hold a high-level party-government-civil service meeting on the 28th to discuss and announce preventive, detection, punishment, and recovery measures to eradicate illegal real estate speculation and other misconduct. Deputy Prime Minister Hong explained, "We will announce the measures early next week, without passing March," adding, "We will impose much stricter standards and responsibilities on public officials (civil servants + public institutions) who should set an example."

The government is reportedly pursuing measures such as requiring a funding plan when purchasing land in the metropolitan area and introducing a real estate property registration system for public officials and others.

The government's decision to announce measures less than a month after the incident was triggered by allegations from civic groups on the 2nd is interpreted as an effort to minimize negative impacts on the Seoul and Busan by-elections. In particular, despite growing dissatisfaction with public development, the government plans to promptly announce the second public redevelopment candidate sites under the 5·6 measures and the first urban project candidate sites related to the 2·4 measures next week.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is accelerating efforts to stabilize housing prices by establishing a Real Estate Transaction Analysis Planning Team under the Land Policy Office and a Housing Lease Support Team managing the entire lease system under the Housing Policy Office early next month. The planning team is an expansion and formalization of the existing Real Estate Market Illegal Activity Response Team and will play a key role in conducting intensive investigations into various illegal real estate activities such as under-the-table contracts and irregular gifts.

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