During a National Assembly audit by the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, lawmakers clashed over allegations of illegal surveillance of real estate critics during the Moon Jae-in administration and controversies surrounding personnel interventions at the Korea Airports Corporation. The audit escalated into a political confrontation as disputes over real estate policies and accusations of statistical manipulation continued.
On October 15, Yonhap News reported that during the audit of the Korea Real Estate Agency and the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG), the ruling People Power Party raised suspicions that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport under the Moon administration illegally surveilled private citizens who criticized its real estate policies and attempted to retaliate against them.
People Power Party lawmaker Kim Eun-hye referenced a so-called 'real estate blacklist' document revealed during last week's audit and demanded the testimony of former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mi and other officials involved at the time. Kim stated, "The Democratic Party government has released a blacklist document showing that it illegally surveilled and attempted to retaliate against private citizens criticizing its real estate policies, yet there has been no response to the request for witness selection for a week." She argued that Kim Hyun-mi, former Director of the Housing and Land Office Lee Moon-ki, and Lee Dong-hwan, head of the Korea Real Estate Agency's Cheongju branch, should be selected as witnesses for the comprehensive audit.
Fellow party member Yoo Sang-beom also pointed out that there had been no internal investigation into the allegations and called for a thorough inquiry. In response, the Democratic Party countered that the opposition was using political allegations to turn the audit into a battleground. Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Yong-ki retorted, "If you are going to call former Minister Kim and others based on political conspiracy theories, then I will call Kim Geon-hee, who was involved in the airport corporation personnel scandal."
Jeon noted that focusing on politically charged witness selections could hinder the ability to call witnesses related to pressing public issues. In the afternoon session, the effectiveness of real estate policies and allegations of statistical manipulation emerged as key points of contention.
People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Hee-yong criticized the remarks made by the head of the Korea Real Estate Agency regarding the potential reduction in the frequency of weekly apartment price announcements, stating that such comments were inappropriate given the growing market instability. Lawmaker Jeong Dong-man pointed out that the head of the agency, along with Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Hong Ji-seon and Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) President Lee Seong-hoon, were all individuals appointed during President Lee Jae-myung's tenure as Gyeonggi Province governor, and expressed concerns that the government might manipulate statistics to cover up failures in real estate policy.
Kim Eun-hye also disclosed a petition from a Korea Real Estate Agency employee alleging statistical manipulation during the Moon administration. The petition stated that the Board of Audit and Inspection found that the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport pressured the agency to distort statistics.
Conversely, Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Tae-jun mentioned that a trial regarding the alleged statistical manipulation is currently underway and defended the agency's position, explaining that the term 'statistical manipulation' does not appear in the indictment related to the case.
The two parties also engaged in disputes over the real estate policies of past and current administrations. Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-kun criticized the Yoon Suk-yeol administration for significantly increasing policy loans, claiming that the Housing and Urban Fund has been used as a means to stimulate the real estate market. He noted that the scale of policy loans expanded from 18.9 trillion won at the end of 2021 to 54 trillion won by the end of 2024, asserting that the Yoon administration is pursuing a policy that increases household debt by utilizing the Housing and Urban Fund. Fellow party member Yeom Tae-young also pointed out that the Yoon administration used 3.18 trillion won from the Housing and Urban Fund to cover a shortfall in tax revenue for 2024, arguing that this undermines the fund's original purpose of supporting housing stability.
Meanwhile, the Land Committee added SK Eco Plant Vice Chairman Jang Dong-hyun and Seoul Administrative Deputy Mayor Jeong Sang-hoon as additional witnesses for the comprehensive audit next week.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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