Accusations that officials at South Korea’s state housing corporation tried to use insider information to cash in on runaway property prices has thrown new fuel on an issue that is draining support from the ruling party ahead of key elections.
Police yesterday said they were serving search and seizure warrants at the headquarters of Korea Land and Housing Corp in Jinju, south of Seoul, to gather evidence of illegal property speculation by employees.
The police raids came one day after South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for an investigation into allegations that at least 13 employees at Korea Land and Housing had acted on insider information and bought undeveloped land near Seoul before the government unveiled a new town development project in the area.
Median apartment prices in Seoul — where about a fifth of South Koreans live — have soared nearly 60 percent since May 2017 when Moon came into office, despite repeated government interventions to try to cool down the market.
Housing affordability has become a political headache for Moon, whose historically high levels of support have been eroded by scandals, high unemployment and slow economic growth.
The property speculation furor comes a month before a by-election that is to decide several key offices, including the mayors of the nation’s two largest cities, Seoul and Busan.
Polls show Moon’s Democratic Party is likely to lose control of Seoul’s municipal government for the first time in a decade, and would struggle to retain power in Busan after the incumbent mayor resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal.
With a year to go until the next national presidential election, polls also suggest the housing scandal is boosting the conservative opposition, which has been in disarray since the impeachment of former South Korean president Park Geun-hye in 2017.
“The soaring house prices, already causing pain to the public, combined with the scandals in the Moon administration will result in public resentment,” said Kwon Huck-ju, a professor of public policy at Seoul National University.
The insider-trading allegations surfaced last week after civic groups accused more than a dozen current and former employees of Korea Land and Housing of speculating in land in two satellite cities of Gwangmyeong and Siheung in Gyeonggi Province, less than 20km southwest of Seoul.
One of the groups, the human rights lawyers’ collective Minbyun, said that from April 2018 to June last year, land corporation employees and their spouses had purchased 10 plots for a total of about 10 billion won (US$8.8 million).
The state-run corporation has subsequently confirmed the purchase of 12 plots by 13 employees over three years, according to a document provided to a ruling party lawmaker.
The aim of the new development project is to decentralize Seoul by turning farmland into a self-sufficient town powered by an industrial complex and full infrastructure, said Yeo Kyoung-hui, a property market analyst at Real Estate 114 Inc.
“Since these new towns have a full renewable capacity of their own with residential and work areas and the infrastructure that connects to Seoul, those who couldn’t afford housing in Seoul would move away and drive up the price,” Yeo said.
Since its launch in 2009, the state housing corporation has developed residential areas, new towns and industrial complexes, including the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, with the aim to improve quality of life and develop the national economy by creating stable housing.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS