Baekhyeon-dong support wall scandal remains a current danger

Cheong chul-gun

The author is a columnist of Joongang Ilbo.
“I will be grateful forever if you help to cover up this.”
“I don't even sleep under a blanket – I don't like to cover things.”
In May 2021, Seondnam reported, while a journalist of Joongang Ilbo in Baekhyeon-Dong in Baekhyeon-Dong in the approval of a large apartment complex in Baekhyeon-dong rejected a veiled offer by the project's chairman. In the following months, the reporter discovered and published a number of exclusive stories in which both corruption and security risks were emphasized with the development.

This investigation contributed to triggering a criminal investigation that led to law enforcement measures and a legal dispute. In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Kim Inseop, a former CEO of the Korea Housing Technology, condemned five years in prison and ordered him to pay a reimbursement of 6.36 billion won. Kim, who once worked as a senior campaign officer for Lee Jae-Myung, the current presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, was convicted of large money sums for lobby work for zoning and building permits. The Court found that he had used his connection to Jeong Jin-Sang, the then head of the city in the city of Songnam and one of the closest helpers of Lees to secure these favors.
The development of Baekhyeon-Dong led to one of the most lucrative results in the history of Korean real estate development. A property previously referred to for a national research institute was rezoned as a semi -loyal area, which enables an increase in zoning status by four levels and a ratio of 316 percent grants a floor area. For comparison: Even new apartments in Seoul's high Jamsil district rarely exceed 270 percent.
This aggressive upzoning had physical consequences. In order to record the new building, the developers carved into a slope and built a massive retaining wall that reached 51 meters and extended a length of 300 meters – more than the triple of the recommended limit of the forest service of 15 meters. Internal debates within the Seondnam city planning committee were intense, especially because geologists had reported the area as a fault zone that were susceptible to landslides. At least one city engineer who has a Ph.D. In civil engineering, the project rejected the project for security reasons. Later he was downgraded to manage a waste sorting system and finally fired. Although he won an illegal action for dismissal, he stepped back shortly afterwards.
Nevertheless, the building permit was adopted in the fifth meeting of the planning committee, with eight out of 14 members who voted in favor, recommended a new exam, and five that do without. The permits were quickly granted, and the then mayor Lee Jae-Myung completed the final development plan.
The legal effects are not over yet. A resumption of the indictment that Lee spread false information – in particular his assertion that the land usage changes were carried out under pressure from the Ministry for Land, Infrastructure and Transport – was postponed until after the presidential election. Right -wing experts say that the case could lead to the invalid of his candidacy if a guilty judgment is confirmed.
Instead of waiting for the decision of the courts, the Democratic Party has started a comprehensive campaign against the judiciary. After the Supreme Court had made a guilty judgment in Lee's earlier election injury injuries, the party numbers accused the judges of being “enemies of the state”. The party has proposed hearings, office procedures and even special studies that aim at the judges involved. A law was introduced to expand the number of judges of the Supreme Court to 30.
Such threats remind you uncomfortably of the authoritarian past of Koreas. During the Chun Doo Hwan Regime in the 1980s, legal independence was repeatedly undermined. In the case of Kim Jae-Gyu, the secret service manager, the President Park Chung Hee murdered, the first and appeals procedure were concluded in just 24 days. Although deviating voices within the Supreme Court argued against the conviction of Kim for betrayal, six judges who expressed this view were put under pressure. Judge Yang Byung-Ho, who refused, was arrested and tortured by military secret services before finally stepping down. After his release, he met the top judge in a disoriented state and spilled coffee on his own shirt.

This terrifying episode prepared the stage for the complete surrender of the court. On January 23, 1981, the Supreme Court unanimously confirmed the death sentence for the future President Kim Dae-Jung in the invented case “uprising”. The judiciary had become an instrument of authoritarian power.
The current behavior of the Democratic Party bears disturbing similarities. The Baekhyeon-Dong scandal is not a political dispute. It is a clear case of agreements between developers and civil servants, which affects public security for private profits. The candidate Lee Jae-Myung owes the public a complete explanation of his role. His party must immediately hire her intimidation campaign against the judiciary.
No matter how large his majority is, neither the president nor the legislature can disrupt the courts. This is a non -negotiable pillar of a constitutional democracy. If this final protection falls, Korea cannot credible to call itself a nation of laws.

Translated from the Joongang Ilbo with generative AI and edited by Korea Joongang Daily Staff.