President Lee Jae-myung on the 26th sent a warning message to public officials who colluded with business owners to conceal facts or filed false reports during the process of cleaning up illegal occupied facilities in valleys nationwide, saying, "Do not miss this last chance." "Valley cleanup" is counted as one of Lee's signature achievements during his tenure as Gyeonggi governor. Recently, he has repeatedly shown strong resolve, comparing its difficulty with "normalizing the real estate market."
On X (formerly Twitter) that day, Lee wrote, "Public officials who colluded with owners of illegal facilities to conceal those facilities and who, through false reporting and dereliction of duty, obstructed the state administration of cleaning up illegal valley facilities, I have given you an opportunity to reinvestigate and re-report through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS)."
He added, "If you miss this chance, you will face a full-scale inspection using every means, including surveys of local resident employment and whistleblower rewards, followed by discipline and investigation and punishment for dereliction of duty, fabrication of official documents, and obstruction of official duties," and said, "Do not miss this last chance, and fulfill your fundamental duty to the people and the state."
Lee's message is intended to warn of a stern response, based on the judgment that there is a wide gap between the cleanup status reported by local governments and conditions on the ground. On the 24th, at a Cabinet meeting, Lee received a report from Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Ho-jung on the "results of cleaning up illegal occupations in rivers and valleys nationwide," and then ordered additional investigations and inspections of the responsible public officials and local governments.
At the time, after hearing the results of the "investigation of 835 illegal occupation facilities in rivers and valleys nationwide," Lee said, "I cannot trust the fact-finding results. Do you believe the nationwide figure of 835?" and added, "When I investigated in Gyeonggi Province, it seemed there were far more."
In particular, granting a final chance to local governments to conduct additional investigations, he said, "Afterward, conduct inspections nationwide, and if (illegal occupation facilities) were omitted, discipline the responsible public officials and local governments, and if the scale of (omission) is large, punish them for dereliction of duty." He added, "If we are going to do it, we must do it properly; allowing half-measures must never happen," and said, "It would be good to proceed clearly based on principle."