With "Family-Owned Naegok-dong Land Designated as Public Housing Site"
Oh Se-hoon Campaign Headquarters: "Not a Favor... Distortion of Facts, Slander"
[Asia Economy Reporters Choo Chae-eun and Park Joon-yi] On the 9th, Cheon Jun-ho, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, raised allegations of land speculation against Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate for Seoul mayor. Oh Se-hoon responded by calling it “distortion of facts and a smear campaign.”
On the same day, Cheon held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office and claimed, “There are suspicions that candidate Oh Se-hoon was involved in designating land in Naegok-dong owned by his family and in-laws as a public housing district.” He added, “In August 2009, when Oh Se-hoon was serving as Seoul mayor, the Seoul city government requested the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to designate Naegok-dong as a public housing district. After review by related agencies, in October 2009, the Ministry designated Naegok-dong, which included 4,443 square meters (approximately 1,344 pyeong) of land owned by Oh’s family and in-laws, as a public housing district.”
He pointed out, “It has been identified that Oh Se-hoon’s family and in-laws received compensation amounting to 3.65 billion KRW from the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) in exchange for transferring land in the development-restricted zone until 2010 and 2011 after the designation of Naegok-dong as a public housing district.” He added, “The Oh family sold their land to SH at prices ranging from twice to three times higher than the previous year.” He further stated, “If candidate Oh was involved in designating the public housing district to dispose of his family’s land while serving as Seoul mayor, this can be seen as an abuse of power for land speculation. Before running for mayor, Oh must properly explain these speculation allegations to the public.”
On the other hand, Oh Se-hoon’s campaign team strongly denied the allegations. In a statement, the campaign argued that Cheon’s claims were distortions of facts and that the inclusion of the land in the public housing district was not a special favor.
The campaign explained, “The land in question was incorporated into the public housing district following the full revision of the ‘Special Act on Construction of National Rental Housing, etc.’ to the ‘Special Act on Construction of Public Housing, etc.’ on March 28, 2006, before Oh took office as mayor.” They also stated, “The location of the land is not on the edge but at the very center of the Naegok district,” and argued, “Since compensation for public land development is generally set below actual transaction prices, the inclusion of the land in the public housing district cannot be considered a special favor.”
Furthermore, the campaign pointed out that the authority to designate public housing districts and lift Greenbelt restrictions lies with the government (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport), not the Seoul city government, so portraying the mayor as having full authority is a distortion of facts. They also emphasized that the law requires land compensation to be assessed based on the status before the Greenbelt lifting, so there is no issue with the compensation. The campaign concluded, “The Democratic Party’s remarks regarding the Naegok-dong land are a typical smear campaign and amount to a declaration of abandoning policy-based and clean elections.”
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