DP leader Lee blasts land minister for axing highway project

"A national project which has already been discussed for several years and to which large amounts of investments were made, is not something that a minister can immediately announce he is scrapping,” Lee Jae-myung said.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks at the National Assembly against the land minister's decision to scrap a highway project on Friday. [YONHAP]

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung harshly criticized the land minister’s decision to scrap a highway development project connecting Seoul and Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi.

“A national project which has already been discussed for several years and to which large amounts of investments were made, is not something that a minister, who is putting his political career on the line, can immediately announce he is scrapping,” Lee said on Friday. “This is taking Yangpyeong county residents hostage while trying to dodge [responsibility].”

Lee called Land Minister Won Hee-ryong petty while accusing Won of trying to destroy the whole project if he cannot get anything out of it.

Won on Thursday said he is axing the highway project due to the fake news dispersed by the Democratic Party that accuses the government of changing the highway plan to benefit first lady Kim Keon-hee and her family.

“Unless Kim moves or sells off the real estate where her ancestral graves are located, the DP’s ‘fruit fly’ agitation will never stop,” Won added while visiting the People Power Party at the National Assembly. “That is why I am removing the very cause.”

Won claimed that no matter how he presents the facts to the DP, its legislators continue to make false accusations.

The controversy was sparked when JTBC reported Tuesday that the Land Ministry changed the endpoint of the highway connecting Seoul and Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi.

According to the report, the endpoint was Yangseo-myeon in Yangpyeong in the original 2017 plan. The same plan was intact during the preliminary feasibility study two years ago.

However, the destination was changed to Gangsang-myeon, which is around 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) south of Yangseo-myeon, in November.

The final destination is just 500 meters (1,640 feet) away from lands owned by the first lady and her family. It was reported that Kim and her family own 22,663 square meters (5.6 acres) of land in the area.

However, the government has argued that the plan was one of the ideas that was yet to be finalized.

Additionally, it added that the changes would not benefit the first lady as the new route would connect to the Jungbu Naeryuk Expressway.

The land values of the area would rise if it were an endpoint. However, as the highway would be connected to the expressway, it would not affect property values in the area.

This is not the first time that the DP has spread rumors against President Yoon Seok Yeol and his wife.

DP Rep. Kim Eui-kyeom during the National Assembly annual audit in October last year accused Yoon and Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon of having drinks at a bar with 30 or so lawyers from Kim & Chang, Korea’s largest law firm, in Gangnam district, southern Seoul.

Kim's claim was based on a phone recording between a cellist and her boyfriend. The cellist said she performed for President Yoon and Justice Minster Han.

The cellist later confessed that it was a lie to prevent her boyfriend from coming under suspicion.

The DP has also repeatedly accused Yoon and his wife of relying on shaman Cheongong for advice, including relocating the president’s residence to the former residence of the Foreign Minister instead of the Army chief of staff residence.

While police are investigating the case, no solid connection has been uncovered yet.

Rep. Kim, a former journalist, had to apologize for his false statement regarding a meeting between Lee and the European Union Ambassador to Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez in November.

Kim at the time told reporters that the ambassador raised concerns that tensions between the two Koreas were escalating yet the Yoon administration had no channel for dialogue with the North Korean government.

The ambassador denied the claim, and in text messages made public by the Foreign Ministry, the ambassador said her words were misused and twisted against their actual meaning or intent.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]