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There was a struggle between the ruling and opposition parties at a personnel hearing today (2nd) over the development project promoted by Won Hee-ryong, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, during his time as governor of Jeju-do.

The Democratic Party attacked that candidate Won Hee-ryong, who had highlighted the suspicion of large-scale labor in the last presidential election, gave preferential treatment to a private business operator as governor.



Reporter Jo Yoon-ha reported.



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From the beginning of the hearing, Democratic lawmakers launched an offensive over the 'Odeungbong Park Private Special Project', which has been suspected of being the 'second Daejang-dong project'.



[Moon Jeong-bok / Democratic Party Member: It was made in a way that thoroughly benefits the private sector.

It's a very clever technique.]



This project to create a park and apartment complex of about 230,000 pyeong in Odeung-dong, Jeju-si was led by a private company.



However, the rate of return was 1.5 times higher than that of other local governments, raising suspicions that it might have driven profits to a specific private company.



Candidate Won strongly denied the allegation of preferential treatment, saying that he had included a provision for returning the money to the residents in case of excess profits.



[Won Hee-ryong / Candidate for Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: Oh Deung-bong is the nation's first model case that was made to prevent private contractors like Daejang-dong from driving public land and specific profits…

.]



When I was the governor of Jeju-do, the use of business promotion expenses also surfaced.



The Democratic Party raised suspicions that candidate Won spent more than 15 million won in business promotion expenses over three years at a high-end Japanese restaurant in Jeju, and Won countered that it was "spending for public business."



[Won Hee-ryong / Candidate for Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: In any case, no corporate card was spent except for meetings for public service as the governor.]



However, the Democratic Party even mentioned the possibility of criminal prosecution, saying that the submission of data for business promotion expenses was insufficient.



[Cho Eung-cheon / Democratic Party Member: Consistent with all kinds of excuses to the National Assembly, while obstructing verification by refusing to submit data, he opens a self-hearing on his YouTube channel and praises himself…

.]



As the workshop replayed during the last presidential election, the direction of the new government's real estate policy was not discussed.



(Video coverage: Kim Nam-seong, Video editing: Kim Jong-mi)