'Candidate with Drunk Driving and Violence Convictions, Suspected of Wife's False Address Registration and Unfair Income Deduction'

Recently, the nominee for Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Kang Do-hyung, who was revealed to have a history of drunk driving and violence, is now under scrutiny for his spouse's false address registration and improper income deduction claims.

According to the office of Kim Du-kwan, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 13th, Kang's spouse registered an address different from their actual residence for 22 days from May 2 to May 24 last year.

The place where Kang's wife registered was a multi-family house, which she rented and operated an English textbook sales store there from December 2019 to April 2021. Last year, she changed the business type to private tutoring and moved her resident registration to open the business. However, due to difficulties caused by COVID-19, she gave up and returned to her original registered address. According to the education office regulations, private tutoring businesses can only operate at the learner's residence or the tutor's residence.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries ministerial confirmation preparation team explained that this occurred during the process of changing the business type from a textbook sales store to a private tutoring center. They added, "While it is true that the resident registration was temporarily moved for the business type change, it is different from false address registration for children's education or home purchase."

Kang's past improper income deduction claims are also controversial. According to Kang's confirmation request submitted to the National Assembly, he applied for income deductions last year for himself, his spouse, and four dependents. The spouse qualifies for the basic deduction, which deducts 1.5 million KRW of income.

However, according to the National Tax Service's income amount certification data, Kang's spouse earned a business revenue of 6,447,223 KRW and a business income amount of 2,073,601 KRW last year. According to the National Tax Service, the spouse's basic deduction is only possible if the business income amount is 1 million KRW or less. Since Kang's spouse's business income exceeds 1 million KRW, she is not eligible for the basic deduction.

Gang Do-hyeong, nominee for Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, is arriving at the hearing preparation office set up at the Seoul branch of the National Fishery Products Quality Management Service in Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 7th. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

It was also revealed that improper income deductions were received in 2019. At that time, Kang's spouse's business income was 1,927,307 KRW, but Kang claimed income deductions under his spouse's name.

In response, Kang's side stated, "During the 2020 comprehensive income tax filing, we corrected the year-end tax adjustment error for 2019 and have already returned the corresponding amount. During the preparation for this confirmation hearing, we reviewed the comprehensive income tax filings for the past five years (2018?2022), made additional payments for any omissions or errors, and completed corrections such as receiving refunds for overreported amounts."

Meanwhile, Kang was confirmed to have been criminally punished with a fine of 1.5 million KRW in 2004 for violating the Road Traffic Act (drunk driving) and a fine of 300,000 KRW in 1999 for assault. Kang issued a statement saying, "I deeply repent for the immature judgments and actions in my youth," and "As a nominee for a cabinet member, I feel very sorry to the people."

Kang, a former marine science research specialist, has served as the president of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology since February and was nominated as the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries on the 4th. The confirmation hearing for Kang will be held on the 19th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.