Land minister offers to resign over LH land speculation scandal
Land Minister Byeon Chang-heum / Yonhap
Land Minister Byeon Chang-heum has offered his resignation to President Moon Jae-in over the snowballing land speculation scandal involving officials at the state housing corporation, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.
Moon thinks that the minister cannot help "taking responsibility" for the case, according to Chung Man-ho, senior presidential secretary for public communication.
The message indicated that Moon would accept Byeon's resignation.
However, Chung said, the president wants the minister to complete the work of introducing legislation for the implementation of newly introduced housing supply measures before he steps down, the secretary added.
The previous day, the government announced the results of its nascent probe into the incident. It said 20 employees at Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) were found to have purchased land in the Gwangmyeong-Siheung area of Gyeonggi Province before it was designated as the site of a major residential town development project. They are suspected of having used unannounced insider information.
Byeon led the company when some of the suspicious land transactions were made. (Yonhap)