Lee Jae-myung on Criticism of 'Excess Profit Recovery': "It's Like Agreeing on a Contract and Then Sharing the Increased House Price at Final Payment"

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 18th, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, responded to the criticism that the clause to recover 'excess profits of the private sector' in the Daejang-dong project was deleted by comparing it to "listing a house for 500 million won, making a contract, and then later when it's time to pay the remaining balance, saying the house price has increased so let's share the profit." He added, "It is neither reasonable nor would the negotiation have succeeded if that were the case."

Candidate Lee attended the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee's audit held at Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office in his capacity as Governor of Gyeonggi Province and answered a question from Lee Eun-joo, a member of the Justice Party. He said, "The reason for setting the profit recovery as a fixed amount rather than a ratio is that if profits beyond the expected amount occur, the private business operator receives them."

He stated, "At the public offering stage, a fixed profit was proposed, and based on that, the preferred negotiation partner was selected. Later, the working department internally proposed 'if excess profits arise, let's take a portion,' but this was not adopted. Calling this embezzlement, think about it logically." He also said, "There are audit cases in the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit materials stating that changing the terms after applying to the public offering is a disciplinary matter."