"Communication Failure, Incompetence, and Collusion Lead to Massive Waste of Taxpayers' Money"
The Democratic Party of Korea on the 6th urged the government to "reconsider the project from the beginning" following the initial drilling results indicating that securing the economic feasibility of the East Sea deep-sea gas field project 'Daewanggorae,' promoted by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, is difficult.
Democratic Party lawmakers from the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee issued a statement that day, saying, "Today's government announcement was a result that could have been sufficiently predicted."
They stated, "Despite pursuing a national project involving enormous budgets, there was no transparent information disclosure, fair research and verification, or efforts to persuade the public using scientific data," and claimed, "President Yoon Seok-yeol and the government's lack of communication, incompetence, and collusion have led to massive waste of taxpayers' money."
They continued, "The government refused to submit documents exchanged between the controversial U.S. consulting firm Actgeo and the Korea National Oil Corporation, citing trade secrets and other reasons," and criticized again, "They wandered in a dream, talking about five times the market capitalization of Samsung Electronics, but failed to provide any documents to the National Assembly."
Democratic Party lawmakers from the Budget and Accounts Special Committee also voiced criticism. They said, "The Daewanggorae drilling project in the East Sea deep-sea gas field, conducted in the dark, has proven to be a failure. The government and the Korea National Oil Corporation failed to confirm economic feasibility even in the first drilling, which was considered the most promising," and asked, "Where has Yoon Seok-yeol's boast of a maximum of 14 billion barrels and a minimum of 3.5 billion barrels gone?"
They added, "The Democratic Party, to ensure transparent budget review and prevent budget waste, inevitably cut the Daewanggorae budget from this year's budget. Nevertheless, the Korea National Oil Corporation proceeded with drilling using its own project funds, wasting taxpayers' money," and argued, "The People Power Party, which cursed the Democratic Party for diligently performing its duties of checking the government and reviewing the budget, needs to apologize."
They further emphasized, "Daewanggorae reminds us of the Peace Dam, a nationwide scam during the Chun Doo-hwan era. A thorough investigation is needed into how many boasts, distortions, and lies were mobilized to overcome the regime's crisis," and stressed, "We must take this incident as a lesson, communicate with the public, respect the National Assembly's audit and budget review rights, and conduct national projects accordingly."
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