Land minister nominee criticized for lacking expertise

Won Hee-ryong, nominated to lead the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, speaks to reporters at the entrance to Gwacheon Government Complex, Monday. Yonhap

By Lee Kyung-min

Former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong is coming under fire after being nominated to lead the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport despite lacking relevant expertise, according to critics, Monday.

The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said the nomination is an apparent reward for spearheading a smear campaign for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party, mostly by raising corruption allegations against the ruling party's defeated presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung.

Won accused Lee, a former Gyeonggi governor and Seongnam mayor, of being deeply involved in a land and commercial district development project to the amount of over 1 trillion won ($810 million) in Daejang-dong in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, saying that Lee helped a construction firm and six key figures related to the firm to net 404.4 billion won, or 68.4 percent of 590 billion won, in dividends from the project.

“The nomination of Won shows President-elect Yoon lacks principles in policy directives, a concerning choice and far from selecting figures that are deemed as the best fit for the daunting tasks they face,” DPK floor leader Park Hong-keun said.

He accused Won of being chosen for his contribution to electing Yoon, rather than for his policy-making capability to address the extremely divisive issue. “Yoon should disclose nomination standards concerning Won and have him subject to stringent scrutiny,” Park said.

Won in his view is not appropriate for the land minister, as evidenced by his policy drives which lacked expertise in general, as well as negotiation skills when he was Jeju governor.

The claim is supported further by Jeju residents, a group of whom issued a statement, Sunday, calling for Won to reject his nomination.

"Won has long ignored the will of Jeju residents, and is not qualified to be the land minister,” said the statement issued jointly by about 100 civic groups of Jeju.

The groups said they are deeply concerned about how the ministry under his leadership would railroad a number of key plans, a bleak scenario they said would play out in the years to come.

“Won granted the construction of for-profit hospitals, thereby compromising the sustainability of the state-run healthcare system, despite fierce opposition from Jeju residents,” they said.

“Similarly, Won practically bulldozed a plan to build a second airport on Jeju Island, ignoring public opinion. The country's real estate policies with far greater at stake will experience a conflict that will be far more intense, if this pattern of behavior continues.”

Yoon was elected by a narrow margin, and failures to listen to the voices of the public will backfire, according to Seoul National University economist Lee In-ho.

“It is a bit early to predict with certainty how the real estate policies will take shape. Policy implementation lacking cooperation and communication with the public will hurt the incoming administration in the long term. This is true of any administration,” he said.