"Gap Investment with Special Public Official Apartments?" ... Controversy over Candidate Kim Seung-hee's Qualifications

Sejong City Apartments Yield Billion-Won Profits Through Sales Without Actual Residence
'Moon Jae-in Dementia' and Other Past Inappropriate Remarks Also Under Scrutiny

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Kim Seung-hee, the nominee for Minister of Health and Welfare, has been accused of making a gap investment and earning profits worth hundreds of millions of won after receiving an apartment through a special supply (special allocation) for public officials in Sejong City without actually residing there. Past inappropriate remarks and behavior during her tenure as head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and as a member of the National Assembly have also sparked controversy.

According to Kang Byung-won, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim, who was the deputy director of the Food and Drug Safety Agency in 2012, was allocated an 84㎡ apartment in 'Sejong Hillstate' located in Dodam-dong, Sejong City. At that time, the apartment’s sale price ranged from 254 million to 288 million won.

According to the public official asset disclosure, Kim already owned one apartment in Mok-dong, Seoul under her name and one apartment in Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province under her spouse’s name. The special supply for public officials in Sejong City was also open to multi-homeowners in Seoul and the metropolitan area.

Kim, who served as head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety until her retirement in March 2016, sold the Sejong City apartment in 2017 for 424 million won, earning a profit of over 100 million won in five years. Although move-in for the apartment began at the end of 2014, Kim reportedly rented it out for 150 million won and did not actually reside there.

Regarding this, Kim’s side explained, "The special allocation for public officials during the relocation to Sejong City was received for the purpose of actual residence, but she retired from public office and changed her living area at the time of move-in, so she could not move in. Later, she could not reside there because the contract period did not align with the existing tenant, and as the reason for actual residence in Sejong disappeared, she sold the apartment."

Earlier, Kim actively criticized the Moon Jae-in administration’s quarantine policies while serving as the opposition party’s secretary of the National Assembly’s COVID-19 Special Committee during the early stages of the pandemic. She strongly urged early elevation of the infectious disease crisis level and measures against mask hoarding, and particularly advocated for entry restrictions not only on Hubei Province, the epicenter of COVID-19, but on all of China.

Regarding national pension reform, she criticized the Moon administration’s 2018 pension reform plan, which included a slight increase in contribution rates and raising the income replacement rate. At a joint meeting of party floor leaders and standing committee secretaries held at the National Assembly, she raised her voice, saying, "The public’s boiling sentiment over the pension reform plan, which requires paying more contributions for a longer time and receiving pensions later, surpasses the disaster-level heatwave."

However, President Yoon Seok-yeol also stated in his presidential campaign pledge that "the income replacement rate has fallen to 40% because only benefits were lowered without raising contribution rates," and announced a pension reform policy based on increasing contribution rates. As the head of the ministry responsible for leading pension reform, Kim is now in a position where she must implement the contribution rate increase she previously criticized.

Kim was also reported to the National Assembly Ethics Committee in 2019 for making remarks about President Moon Jae-in’s dementia during a parliamentary audit. At that time, she mentioned the president’s memory, saying, "Although dementia and forgetfulness are medically different, forgetfulness can appear as an early symptom of dementia."

In this regard, Democratic Party lawmakers criticized Kim, saying, "She was rejected in the candidate screening of the Future United Party, the predecessor of the People Power Party, due to her abusive and hateful remarks," and added, "She is neither capable nor dignified, and being a woman alone does not make her suitable as a ministerial nominee."

Earlier, in 2015, when she was head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Kim faced criticism for stating that the harmfulness of the fake 'Baeksuo' herb 'Iyeopupiso' was "judged to pose no risk to human health." At that time, despite the Consumer Agency revealing cases of side effects from Iyeopupiso, Kim’s definitive statement that it was harmless as the head of the food regulatory authority was deemed inappropriate.

In 2017, as a member of the National Assembly, she criticized her successor at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety over the 'pesticide egg' scandal but faced backlash for failing to prepare adequate countermeasures during her own term and was even reported to the prosecution by civic groups.