‘I will review the entire thing’ (29th of last month) → ‘I followed the report of the service company’ (10th)
Regarding the proposal to change the terminus of the ‘Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway’, which is controversial, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 10th, The service company that reviewed the feasibility suggested an alternative route, and we just followed it.” Some service reports were also made public. On the basis of this report, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong appeared on YouTube and argued that ‘the route change is a reasonable decision’. However, this explanation contradicts the position of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which just a few days ago explained that it had changed the route to reflect the Yangpyeong-gun proposal. It was also revealed that Minister Won did not even know the existence of the service report at the time of the declaration of’Blank Paper’ on the 6th.
It was around the 28th of last month that the ‘suspicion of preferential treatment for Mrs. Kim Gun-hee’s family’ began in earnest. Kang Deuk-gu, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, held a press conference at the National Assembly that day and demanded a responsible explanation from related ministries, saying, “Controversy over the suspicion of preferential treatment for the president’s wife is growing more and more due to the change in the terminus of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway.”
The next day, Minister Won Hee-ryong, who appeared at a plenary meeting of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, said, “We must not act to arouse public suspicion,” and said that he would reconsider the change of the terminal스포츠토토. He said, “There is no problem, but the opposition party is making a problem, so I will not do business that will cause misunderstanding.” It was the first official position of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
While “reviewing the change in the end point,” the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport dismissed the suspicion of preferential treatment, citing the fact that it “only reflected the demands of Yangpyeong-gun.” The key axis of the explanation was that there was a request to change the end point from Yangpyeong-gun in July of last year, and that it was complied with. However, as it was revealed at the time that Yangpyeong-gun presented a route similar to the existing preliminary feasibility study plan as ‘plan 1′, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs’ explanation lost its persuasiveness.
Amidst the situation where the reason for the route change was not clearly explained, Minister Won announced on the 6th that “not only the route review, but also the promotion of the road construction project will be completely stopped.” He said that he would suddenly cancel a large-scale national project with a total project cost of about 1.7695 trillion won.
After all this commotion, the ‘report’ appeared on the 10th. On this day, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs released the contents of the report claiming that the service company ‘Donghae Total Technology Corporation’, which is conducting a feasibility study for the Yangpyeong Expressway, presented an alternative route. It means ‘reasonable decision’ according to ‘scientific basis’. It was found that Minister Won was unaware of the existence of this report before the announcement of ‘Blank Paper’. An official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport told the Hankyoreh, “I only found the report last weekend. At the time of Minister ‘Baek Ji-hwa’ remarks, I did not know the existence of the report.”
On the 13th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will hold an on-site meeting in Yangseo-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun, which was the end point of the ‘1 plan’, with the Donghae Comprehensive Technology Corporation at the fore. It appears to show reporters the scene and emphasize that there is no problem with the process of changing the route of the highway involved in the suspicion of preferential treatment for the first lady Kim Kun-hee’s family.
