Police Officially Launch Investigation into Alleged Favoritism for Yoon Seok-yeol's In-Laws in Yangpyeong Gongheung District

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Ji-hwan] The police, who were conducting a preliminary investigation (pre-indictment inquiry) into allegations of preferential treatment in the development project of Gongheung District in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, linked to the family of Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, have converted the case into a formal investigation.

The Yangpyeong Police Station in Gyeonggi confirmed on the 17th that the case was upgraded from a preliminary investigation to a formal investigation after a civic group recently filed a complaint requesting punishment for an unidentified licensing official related to the Gongheung District development project.

The Gongheung District project is a development on approximately 22,411 square meters in Gongheung-ri, Yangpyeong County. LH had planned to build national rental housing but abandoned the project in July 2011, after which it was changed to private development.

The core of the preferential treatment allegations is that Choi, the mother-in-law of candidate Yoon, completed the apartment development project in Gongheung District despite missing the project deadline.

Yangpyeong County officially changed the project implementation plan approval period (project deadline) from November 2014 to July 2016, nine days before approving the project completion in June 2016, even though ES&D, the project operator and the family company of Yoon’s mother-in-law, had not applied for an extension.

This sparked allegations of preferential treatment mainly from the Democratic Party, and Gyeonggi Province launched an audit on the matter on the 21st of last month.

The police have been continuing the preliminary investigation since receiving related materials from Yangpyeong County on the 15th of last month in the form of voluntary submission. However, it is known that the police have not yet conducted additional procedures such as summoning related parties for questioning.

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