<Anchor> The



government recently announced that it will create a new city with 70,000 households in Gwangmyeong and Siheung, Gyeonggi-do, near Seoul.

However, there were suspicions that the employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation LH, who played an important role in the creation of the new city, were speculating on land worth 10 billion won in the area.



First, reporter Hyung-woo Jeon.



<Reporter> The



Korean Land and Housing Corporation LH employees who raised allegations of speculation by the Participation Solidarity and Minbyun.



According to the report, when some parcels were randomly selected and surveyed, 14 employees and 2 family members bought 23,000 square meters of new housing sites.



Some 4,000 square meters of parcels were acquired under the joint name of four employees.



The total purchase amount is around 10 billion won.



Of these, close to 6 billion were found to be borrowed from a local agricultural cooperative.



[Attorney Kang-Hoon Lee/Participation Solidarity People's Hope Headquarters: The employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation, who are in a position to access more information than anyone else, take the lead in land speculation in the new city's planned site.] This



is the area of ​​Gwarim-dong that will be included in the new city.



People presumed to be LH employees bought the farmland around the area under a joint name.



The price of land near Guarim-dong has risen significantly in anticipation of the recent designation of a new city.



[Authorized broker in Guarim-dong, Siheung-si: It was in the range of 1.5 million won to 1.6 million won per pyeong, but at the end of last year, the lowest price was 2 million won per pyeong.

After the announcement of the new city, not only the sale was withdrawn, but there were no items to trade.]



Most of the LH employees who are suspicious are in their 50s and over, and many are known to be in charge of land compensation.



[Attorney Kim Nam-geun/Participation Solidarity Policy Member: (To purchase farmland) I have to submit a farming plan, but it is a very difficult part to do farming while working as an employee of LH Corporation.]



If you invest using the information you learned during work, you can be punished for investing. Even if the information is not known in advance, the job relevance is large and there is a potential for a conflict of interest.



Minbyun and the Participation Solidarity plan to request a public interest audit from the Audit Office.



LH said that 12 out of 14 people in question were identified as real employees, excluding the job and undertaking an investigation.



(Video coverage: Kim Seong-il, video editing: Kim Jong-woo)