Lee Jae-myung's Daejang-dong 'Direct Confrontation'... "I Will Attend the National Assembly Audit"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate and Governor of Gyeonggi Province, has chosen a 'direct confrontation' regarding the Daejang-dong issue.

On the 12th, Lee held an urgent online press conference on current issues and announced that he would attend the National Assembly's audit of Gyeonggi Province scheduled for the 18th and 20th as the head of the audited institution, in his capacity as Governor of Gyeonggi Province.

Lee's choice of 'imprisonment' instead of 'resignation as governor' amid the expected relentless offensive from the opposition, including the People Power Party, is interpreted as a strategy to clear up all distortions and fake news related to Daejang-dong during this audit.

Perhaps for this reason, during the press conference, Lee took time to explain in detail the major controversial points, stating that there are many misunderstandings about the Daejang-dong development, and that some media and political forces are spreading fake news by distorting peripheral and minor issues while omitting the essence and main points, making it seem as if there are huge problems with the development project.

First, regarding the background of the retreat from a public development project in the Daejang-dong project, he revealed, "Originally, LH was promoting public development for the Daejang-dong project, but after I was elected, LH suddenly gave up on public development. Later, it was revealed that this was due to lobbying by developers and political tactics by the People Power Party."

He then explained the background of introducing the nation's first public-private joint development project in the Daejang-dong development.

Lee said, "At a press conference marking my first year as mayor of Seongnam in 2011, I announced plans to develop the Wirye New Town housing project and the Daejang-dong development as public developments so that 100% of the development profits would belong to the citizens of Seongnam. However, for four years, the People Power Party mobilized the Seongnam City Council to block this and forced us to proceed with private development, so we ultimately had to give up on public development. Nevertheless, I thought we should not allow private development as they wanted, so I devised a public-private partnership that mobilized private capital to carry out the project while securing public interests and recovering a significant portion of the development profits," he introduced.

Furthermore, he claimed, "If the Daejang-dong project had been completely entrusted to the private sector as the People Power Party demanded, even the 550.3 billion KRW that Seongnam City secured would have gone entirely to the People Power Party, construction forces, and private developers."

Lee also added, "We obtained integrity pledges from the Daejang-dong project operators, but it was recently revealed that they violated this by bribing public officials. I have ordered the suspension of dividend payments and the recovery of already paid dividends due to 'violation of integrity obligations.'"

Regarding the Daejang-dong incident, Lee bowed his head over the 'deviations' of some employees.

He said, "There are about 5,000 personnel under my jurisdiction, but some employees have been tainted and suspected of corruption, so as the person with personnel authority and management responsibility, I cannot avoid moral responsibility. I apologize for the deviant actions of some employees as the person with personnel authority and manager."

He also promised, "Unlike in the past (private development), the People Power Party and conservative media have reversed their stance 180 degrees and arrogantly claim that 100% public development should have been done. Taking this opportunity, we will implement the 'Full Development Profit National Recovery System' introduced by Gyeonggi Province to ensure that unearned income development profits never go into the pockets of specific interests but instead go to the public, and we will fundamentally block the republic of real estate speculation and unearned income."

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