[비즈한국] Nearly two years after allegations of route changes for the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway were first raised, the Kim Keon-hee special prosecutor team has officially launched its investigation. On the 14th, the special prosecutor team led by Min Joong-ki conducted raids on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as well as Donghae Engineering Consultants and Kyungdong Engineering, which were contracted for the project. The following day, on the 15th, they summoned and questioned key officials from the contractors and employees of the Korea Expressway Corporation.
The controversy surrounding the Yangpyeong Expressway route change first emerged in June 2023. It centers on allegations that during the tenure of former Minister Won Hee-ryong, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport changed the terminus of the expressway to the area where the family of First Lady Kim Keon-hee owns land.
Following this, the project was completely suspended after former Minister Won declared a "scrapping" of the Yangpyeong Expressway project in July 2023. In May, the police raided the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Yangpyeong County Office, and the contractors in connection with these suspicions. The Kim Keon-hee special prosecutor team has since included this issue in its investigation. Bizhankook has summarized the core issues that must be examined regarding the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway controversy.
Who Drew the ‘Separation Distance Map’?
In August 2023, Bizhankook reported after obtaining a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport document titled "Status of Separation Distance between Related Land and Route," which measured the distance between the altered Yangpyeong Expressway plan and land owned by President Yoon Suk-yeol’s in-laws. While former Minister Won Hee-ryong initially stated that he became aware of the existence of the presidential in-laws' property near the changed terminus on June 29, 2023, this document was created on June 8, 21 days prior (Related article: [Exclusive] Was Won Hee-ryong really unaware? Ministry of Land document measuring presidential in-laws' land obtained).
The key question is when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport became aware of the presidential in-laws' property and who authored the document. The Ministry initially claimed the document was created by the Road Policy Division, but after Bizhankook's report, they changed their story, stating that the contractor had produced the map. Until now, the Ministry has maintained that the contractors in charge of the feasibility study proposed the alternative route first.
The possibility has also been raised that a third party, not the Ministry or the contractors, proposed the route change. In fact, some of the documents related to the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway held by the Ministry list a third-party construction firm, rather than the hired contractor, as the author.
Contractor with Former Officials Re-tasked with B/C Analysis
There are also procedural issues. Former Minister Won unilaterally declared the complete scrapping of the project verbally, after which the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport canceled the planned public inspection and briefing sessions for the draft Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment. Despite this, they earmarked 12.304 billion KRW for basic design—a phase that should only proceed after completing transportation and environmental impact assessments and consulting with the Ministry of Economy and Finance on total project costs.
Later, under the pretext of resolving political strife, the Ministry tasked the same feasibility study contractor with re-conducting a B/C (Benefit-Cost Ratio) analysis (Related article: [Exclusive] Is 'Stop' and 'Go' all up to Won Hee-ryong? Ministry of Land re-tasks same firm with Yangpyeong Expressway feasibility study). While this should have been performed during the initial feasibility study, the Ministry paid the contractor the full completion fees and construction costs despite the study concluding without a B/C analysis.
Expressway projects typically follow a sequence of Preliminary Feasibility Study → Feasibility Study → Large-scale Construction Bidding Method Review → Basic Design → Detailed Design. In effect, the project proceeded to the basic design stage without properly concluding the feasibility study.
Need to Investigate Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Involvement
Some point out that not only the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Finance, but also the Ministry of Economy and Finance should not be excluded from the investigation. The Yangpyeong Expressway project saw an increase in costs by approximately 100 billion KRW compared to the preliminary feasibility study, raising suspicions of Ministry of Economy and Finance involvement. Regarding this, during a National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee plenary session in August 2023, former Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho stated, "According to relevant laws and regulations, consultation with the Ministry of Economy and Finance occurs regarding differences between preliminary and actual feasibility studies after the feasibility study is completed by relevant departments, so the current state of an ongoing feasibility study is not a situation for consultation with the Ministry of Economy and Finance."
However, an official business trip document from the Korea Expressway Corporation obtained by Bizhankook explicitly states that a meeting with the Ministry of Economy and Finance regarding the Yangpyeong Expressway was held on January 3, 2023 (Related article: Ministry of Economy and Finance said "No discussions on Yangpyeong Expressway," then what was the 'work consultation' with the Korea Expressway Corporation in January?). The progress status in the "Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway Feasibility Study (Evaluation) Contractor Alternative Route Review" data disclosed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also explicitly mentions "Consultation on Total Project Cost with Ministry of Economy and Finance" in January 2023.
Yangpyeong County officials and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport officials involved in the project are also under scrutiny. Some of the Ministry officials responsible for the project at the time were promoted to high-ranking Grade B civil servants last year.
An industry insider commented, "Contractors have no choice but to follow the instructions of the project owner. That is why the industry views high-ranking officials, not the contractors, as the core of the project changes."