Choi Moon-soon, "Legoland Incident Announced for Political Purposes" Direct Criticism of Kim Jin-tae

"Governor Kim Jin-tae's statement that he couldn't repay the money was the primary accident"

Choi Moon-soon, former Governor of Gangwon Province [Photo by Yoon Dong-ju]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] Former Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon directly criticized Governor Kim Jin-tae of Gangwon Province, saying that the cause of the Legoland default situation was "announced for political purposes without accurately grasping the actual truth."

Former Governor Choi appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the morning of the 25th and claimed, "The government is the last bastion in the bond market or credit market, but it destroyed and gave up on this itself."

He emphasized, "I think it was good to decide to defend by investing the budget belatedly, but money that did not need to be spent was spent," and "If that company (Gangwon Jungdo Development Corporation) had been left alone, it would have gradually extended and repaid the debt."

Regarding the claim that he promoted the project without the approval of the provincial council during his tenure as governor, former Governor Choi refuted, "That is not true. Without the approval of the provincial council, a payment guarantee of 205 billion won cannot be made," adding, "There are minutes left, and approval was obtained not only from the provincial council but also from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Central Investment Review Committee."

He further argued, "The first accident was when Governor Kim Jin-tae said he could not repay the money," and "What could have been stopped on a small scale escalated to a stage where 50 trillion won was invested."

He also pointed out, "Gangwon Jungdo Development Corporation had agreed with securities companies to extend debt repayment the day before Governor Kim announced the rehabilitation procedure," and "Governor Kim just announced it without communicating with the company's presidents."

He added, "(Governor Kim) threw punches and kicked but missed and fell."

Earlier, on the 28th of last month, Governor Kim expressed his intention to withdraw the payment guarantee for the 205 billion won scale project financing (PF) asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) issued to develop the Legoland theme park in the Jungdo area of Chuncheon City.

After the bond market quickly tightened and financial market instability spread, Governor Kim announced on the 21st, "The rehabilitation procedure will proceed as scheduled, but the debt will be repaid."

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