Blue House: Politics: News: Hankyoreh

The whole area of ​​Pyeongsan Village, Jisan-ri, Hebuk-myeon, Yangsan-si, Gyeongnam. After retiring from office, President Moon Jae-in and his wife use a house in this village as their sister-in-law. 2020.6.5 Yonhap News

Political struggles are continuing on the site of the sister-in-law to stay after President Moon Jae-in retired. The sister-in-law who will stay after the president’s retirement has always been a matter of controversy. At that time, the opposition party attacked and politicized the sister-in-law that former President Roh Moo-hyun prepared in Bonghama-eul, Gyeongsangnam-do. In the process of purchasing the site in Naegok-dong, Seoul, former president Lee Myung-bak’s sister-in-law was found to have reduced his son Si-hyung’s share of burden and increased the share of government expenses. The opposition party and the conservative media are questioning the legality of changing the characteristics of the farmland, the false information of farming careers to purchase farmland, and the adequacy of construction costs. I pointed out whether the opposition party’s arguments regarding the president’s sister-in-law were valid.

President Moon purchased 2630.5㎡ of five parcels in Jisan-ri, Hebuk-myeon, Yangsan-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, in order to prepare a house to live after retirement. The total area including the site for the guard building is 3860m2. The problem is that some of the purchased land was farmland, and recently some of the farmland was changed into land after being’transformed’. Trait change is the change of the shape of the land by cutting or filling the land. In order to build a house, you must obtain permission to change the trait from the mayor or the county. The opposition party insisted that there was a preferential treatment in the process and that the president benefited from it financially. However, the competent local government is in a position that suspicions of the opposition party and the media are excessive. An official from Yangsan City said, “To build a house on farmland, you have to convert it to land, and in this process, the price of land naturally increases. If you only change your traits and sell the land, you can talk about’the difference’, but can you do that with the president’s sister?” “Common sense raised suspicion that makes no sense.” Under the current law, the period of security for the former president is up to 15 years (10 years + 5 years extension), and it is practically impossible to sell the site where the security building was built during that period. The Blue House said that there was an inevitable situation in which there was no choice but to change the character. The land (land) that can be built in rural areas is currently limited, such as where there are houses or vacant houses, but in this situation, there is no way other than converting the farmland to land to secure a site of sufficient size to accommodate the sister-in-law and the guard. .

The current farmland law states, “Anyone who intends to acquire farmland must obtain a farmland acquisition certificate from the mayor/gu head, mayor, or village head who has jurisdiction over the location of the farmland. A person who intends to obtain a farmland acquisition qualification certificate must prepare an agricultural management plan and submit an application for issuance to the mayor. It must be done” (Article 8). Only those who’really trying to build’ farming can own farmland. What the opposition party is facing is the part that President Moon stated in his agricultural management plan as ’11 years of farming experience’. Wasn’t the farming experience falsely written to buy farmland? Some opposition lawmakers are focusing on this part to connect the speculation techniques of LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation) employees, who have recently suffered public resentment, with the purchase of the site for the sister-in-law of President Moon. However, when looking at the Farmland Act, it is difficult to say that there is a problem in the process of President Moon’s purchase of farmland. This is because the Farmland Act allows not only the’people who built farming’ but also the’people who use farmland’ to own farmland. Land can be purchased if agricultural management capabilities (how to secure labor and equipment, farming will, etc.) are recognized through the agricultural management plan. If President Moon says that he will farm like other returnees after retirement, it means that there is no problem in acquiring farmland. However, President Moon’s writing as ’11 years of farming experience’ is controversial. This is because it is difficult to immediately accept the explanation that the majority of the people view President Moon as a legal man and a professional politician, and that he has farmed for 11 years in the field attached to his home. In response, another official from Yangsan City said, “It is entirely up to the individual’s own judgment to write farming experience in the agricultural management plan. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a few, and at least it doesn’t matter if you have no experience. President Moon purchased farmland planted with fruit trees such as plum trees. Maintaining such land is also considered to be farming.”

The conservative press compares the size of President Moon’s sister-in-law with that of former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye to question the appropriateness of the scale. In fact, it is true that the site of the former president’s sister-in-law in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (1023㎡) or the site of former president Park’s sister-in-law in Naegok-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul (406㎡) is wider. However, it is difficult to simply compare the two former presidential sisters in Seoul with the sisters in rural rural areas. This is because the size of the site that must be secured in order to build buildings in rural areas is much larger than in Seoul. When land purchase and construction costs were added, the budget for security facilities was similar. It was estimated that it would cost 6.7 billion won for the former president and 6.7 billion won for the former president, and 6.2 billion won for President Moon. Former President Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye’s Gyeongho-dong in Seoul cost a lot to buy the site, and President Moon’s Gyeongho-dong, located in Gyeongnam, cost less. In addition, as the former president’s outer security work was transferred from the National Police Agency to the security office, the budget for facilities for protection staff was added at 2.9 billion won, so for simple comparison, the Blue House explained that the budget for the guard subtracts this cost of 3.3 billion won. . By Lee Wan Sang-won, staff reporter