Candidate Lee Jong-seop Faces Controversy Over Owning Multiple Prime Apartments

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Military Specialist Reporter Yang Nak-gyu] It has been reported that nominee for Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-seop owns houses in Jamsil, Seoul, and Gwanggyo New Town, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. In particular, it is expected to become controversial as it is known that he owned them while residing in the official residence during his tenure as Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

According to a Ministry of National Defense official on the 12th, nominee Lee lived in the Yongsan official residence while serving as Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The apartments reported in the official gazette in March 2018 were an 84.99㎡ apartment in Jamsil and a 107.87㎡ apartment in Gwanggyo New Town, Suwon.

The Jamsil apartment reported in the gazette was valued at 740 million KRW, and the Gwanggyo New Town apartment purchased by subscription was reported at 695 million KRW, both jointly owned by the couple. While staying at the Yongsan official residence, nominee Lee rented out the Jamsil apartment with a jeonse deposit of 700 million KRW and the Gwanggyo New Town apartment with a jeonse deposit of 630 million KRW.

Currently, nominee Lee is known to have sold the Jamsil apartment in May 2019 for 1.62 billion KRW and purchased another apartment in the same Jamsil neighborhood for 1.54 billion KRW, thus owning two apartments.

It was also revealed that his eldest daughter, in her 20s, received assistance through gifts and loans when purchasing a 46.75㎡ apartment in Sadang-dong, Seoul, for 550 million KRW. At that time, the daughter’s assets were approximately 14 million KRW in deposits. The current asking price for this apartment is around 900 million KRW.

Regarding this, nominee Lee’s side explained that owning multiple houses while residing in the official residence as Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was unavoidable due to the emergency standby nature of the position, which required living near the workplace. They also clarified that all gift taxes were paid when assisting the daughter’s apartment purchase and that interest was received monthly on the 100 million KRW loan.

However, there are claims that nominee Lee, while living in the official residence during active duty, owned three apartments in the metropolitan area by repaying the installment loan for a new apartment’s down payment with the jeonse deposits from the apartments and supplementing funds for his daughter’s apartment purchase, thereby gaining a capital gain of 1.7 billion KRW.

In response, nominee Lee’s side stated, "There were no illegal elements in owning the houses, but we will take this as an opportunity to reflect on whether it met the public’s expectations."

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