Kim Gun-hee Special Counsel Raids Land Ministry Official Seconded to Yoon's Transition Team Over Yangpyeong Expressway Allegation

Evidence Suggests Involvement of Yoon Suk-yeol Transition Committee

The special prosecution team led by Min Jung-ki, which is investigating allegations against First Lady Kim Gun-hee, has conducted a search and seizure of a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official in connection with the Yangpyeong Expressway route change allegation. The official in question had previously been seconded to the presidential transition committee of former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The special investigation team led by Min Jung-ki, investigating allegations against First Lady Kim Gun-hee, conducted a search and seizure at Yangpyeong County Office and other locations last August in connection with the 'Yangpyeong Expressway Route Change Allegation.' Photo by Yonhap News

On October 16, the special prosecution team announced to the media, "In relation to the suspicion of changes to the Yangpyeong Expressway's end-point, we are conducting a search and seizure at the current and former workplaces and residence of Director Kim from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, who was assigned to the transition committee and was involved in related work."

The special prosecution team suspects that around March 2022, the transition committee may have instructed Director Kim to review an alternative route for the Yangpyeong Expressway project that included land owned by First Lady Kim Gun-hee’s family.

The Yangpyeong Expressway route change allegation centers on claims that, during the tenure of former Minister Won Hee-ryong, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport pushed forward the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway project and changed the end-point route to the area where the Kim family’s land is located, thereby granting them preferential treatment. Assemblyman Kim is known as the person who requested the route change to the location of the Kim family’s land.

The original Yangseo-myeon end-point route for the project passed the preliminary feasibility study in 2021. However, controversy arose in May 2023 when the Ministry began reviewing a new end-point route in Gangsang-myeon, where the Kim family’s land is situated. As the controversy grew, former Minister Won abruptly announced the cancellation of the project in July of that year.