Did South Korea's Special Counsel Target the Land Ministry in Probe of Ex-First Lady?

Seoul, July 14 (NationPress) South Korea's special counsel team probing allegations against former first lady Kim Keon Hee executed raids at approximately 10 sites, including the Ministry of Land, as part of its investigation into a contentious expressway project alleged to have been modified to financially benefit the Kim family.

Led by prosecutor Min Joong-ki, the special counsel dispatched investigators to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, along with two subcontractors and various other sites to seize documents and computer files, according to officials.

The allegations suggest that the government altered the endpoint of the Seoul-Yangpyeong expressway project to a location where the Kim family possesses land in Yangpyeong, east of Seoul, significantly increasing the land's value upon the road's completion.

However, those targeted in Monday's raids did not include former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong or Rep. Kim Sun-gyo of the People Power Party, who served as Yangpyeong County's governor during that time.

Rep. Kim is accused of requesting the revision of the expressway's route.

Prosecutors are anticipated to summon Won and Kim, along with other officials from the ministry, for questioning after reviewing the evidence obtained from the raids.

These allegations surfaced following the authorities' decision to reassess the route in May 2023, despite the project having successfully passed a feasibility test in 2021.

The land ministry undertook an internal audit of the project at the request of the National Assembly. It took 18 months for the ministry to present its findings, which indicated that certain documents related to the rerouting had been deleted before submission to parliament, as reported by the Yonhap news agency.

Won ultimately canceled the project in July 2023 as the scandal emerged.

On July 8, in connection with this investigation, the special counsel team also executed raids on the national police agency, as well as the residences and offices of both current and former lawmakers, as part of their inquiry into corruption allegations involving the former first lady, according to legal sources.

In a statement to the press, the team confirmed it was executing a search warrant at the Korean National Police Agency to obtain pertinent materials in collaboration with the agency.

The team also sent prosecutors to a police station in Chuncheon, approximately 75 kilometers northeast of Seoul, to conduct search and seizure operations aimed at securing investigation records related to alleged overseas gambling by Unification Church leaders.