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Special counsel raids land ministry, subcontractors in probe involving ex-first lady

Published: 14 Jul. 2025, 11:24

The special counsel team investigating allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon Hee raids the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport offices in Sejong on July 14. [NEWS1]

The special counsel team investigating allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon Hee raided Monday some 10 locations, including the land ministry, as part of its probe into a controversial expressway project suspected of having been rerouted to benefit the Kim family financially.

The special counsel, led by lead prosecutor Min Joong-ki, sent its investigators to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, two subcontractors and other locations to confiscate documents and computer files, officials said.

Allegations assert that the government changed the end point of the Seoul-Yangpyeong expressway project to an area of land in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi, owned by the Kim family, as prices of the land would rise if the road is built.

However, those subject to Monday's raid did not include then Land Minister Won Hee-ryong and Rep. Kim Sun-gyo of the People Power Party, who was the governor of Yangpyeong County at the time.

Kim Sun-gyo is suspected of making the request to revise the expressway route.

Prosecutors are expected to call in Won and Kim, as well as other ministry officials in connection with the project, for questioning once they examine the evidence obtained from the raid.

The allegations emerged after the authorities decided to consider a review of the route in May 2023, even though the project had already passed a feasibility test in 2021.

The land ministry conducted an internal audit on the project at the request of the National Assembly. It took 18 months for the ministry to deliver its findings, which revealed that some documents detailing the rerouting plans had been deleted before being submitted to parliament.

Won scrapped the project in July 2023, as the scandal broke.

Yonhap