[2022 National Audit] Kim Dong-yeon Responds to Presidential Office's Denial of Yangpyeong Gongheung District Development Allegations: "Thoroughly Investigated"

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon is responding to questions from lawmakers during the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee's audit of Gyeonggi Province held at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office on the 18th.

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon dismissed the recent explanation by the Presidential Office that the results of the Gyeonggi Province audit related to the 'Yangpyeong Gongheung District development suspicion' involving President Yoon Seok-yeol's in-laws were inaccurate, stating, "I believe the Audit Office conducted a thorough investigation."

The suspicion regarding the development of Yangpyeong Gongheung District centers on allegations that various special favors were granted to ESI&D, a family company of President Yoon's mother-in-law, during the process of changing the development of 22,411㎡ in Gongheung-ri, Yangpyeong-gun, from public to private development in 2016.

In November 2016, Yangpyeong-gun planned to impose a development charge of 1.748 billion KRW on ESI&D for the Gongheung District, but the final imposed amount was decided to be zero the following year, and only belatedly imposed about 187 million KRW in November last year.

Gyeonggi Province conducted an audit on this matter, issued an institutional warning to Yangpyeong-gun, and, judging the issue to be serious, referred it to the police for investigation.

On the 18th, during the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee's national audit of Gyeonggi Province held at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office, Governor Kim responded to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Gyo-heung, who asked, "The Presidential Office says the announcement of the investigation results on the Yangpyeong Gongheung District development suspicion in Gyeonggi Province is not true. What do you think about this?" by stating, "I believe the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Audit Office conducted a thorough audit."

Earlier, lawmaker Kim Gyo-heung pointed out, "If a crime is confirmed through future investigations regarding the Yangpyeong Gongheung District, it will be possible to recover criminal proceeds," and criticized, "Very important aspects such as the project implementer, area, and period have all been changed to very minor acts."

He added, "It is truly regrettable that the Presidential Office denied the facts without specifying the legality of the content," and criticized, "If the Gyeonggi Province audit is briefed like this, isn't it just setting guidelines for the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency conducting the investigation?"

Earlier, on the 7th, the Presidential Office briefed regarding the announcement of the audit results related to the Gongheung District development suspicion by Gyeonggi Province, stating, "The auditor who audited the Gongheung District at that time is known to be a lawyer appointed breaking the convention of appointing professionals from the Board of Audit and Inspection," and "Based solely on the audit report prepared under these circumstances, we clarify that the Democratic Party lawmaker's claim that 'most of the special favor suspicions are true' regarding the current disputed facts is clearly not true."

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