Kim Dong-yeon: "We fought loudly during the briefing on Moon administration's real estate measures"

Kim Dong-yeon, the New Wave presidential candidate, is attending the '2022 Small Business New Year's Meeting' held at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul on the 5th, where he is presenting policies related to small businesses. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Kim Dong-yeon, the presidential candidate of the New Wave party, revealed behind-the-scenes stories about how he had loud arguments with the Blue House while discussing real estate measures during his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy under the Moon Jae-in administration.

On the 9th, Kim appeared on the economic YouTube channel ‘Sampro TV’ and said, "When we were working on real estate measures under the Moon Jae-in government, there were loud exchanges and almost a big fight while reporting to the Blue House and the President."

Kim explained, "There were senior Blue House officials and chiefs present, so it was like '1 against 15 to 20' in the argument. At that time, Hong Jang-pyo was the economic chief, but Kim Soo-hyun, the social affairs chief, was in charge of real estate. The policy chief was Jang Ha-sung."

He said, "Two things clashed. I believed that political ideology should not be involved in real estate, and since a policy focused solely on curbing speculation would not work, I advocated for expanding supply. That was in 2018, but it was not accepted."

He added, "At that time, I proposed 'postponing the heavy capital gains tax on multiple homeowners for two years and then reinstating it with a 5 percentage point increase after two years,' saying the two measures should go as a package. But the decision was made to accept only the latter. I kept saying it was impossible, and because I kept insisting, a secretary present even said, 'Are you defying the President?'"

Kim also confessed to having a quarrel with a senior Blue House official after the meeting. He said, "The chief and the secretary general followed me out and we had a big fight. I used very harsh language and even swore. When they followed me out, I said 'I will quit.' The purpose was to get listings through the capital gains tax deferral, but not only was that rejected, they said they would rather increase it, so I was very angry at that time."

Kim criticized, "Real estate issues should be viewed as a whole, like conducting an orchestra, including supply, regulation, and regional balanced development, but this government only focused on 'strengthening regulations.'" He also hinted at opposition from the President regarding why such policies were not implemented during his tenure, saying, "I kept insisting on expanding supply, but there are things the Deputy Prime Minister can decide and many things the President decides."

Regarding the real estate policies of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate, Kim pointed out, "They talk about 50 trillion won, 100 trillion won, issuing national bonds, and supplementary budgets, but it is completely unrealistic," and criticized, "Both sides have problems with their populist, vote-winning policies."

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