Vice Minister Hong Ji-seon of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 5th that, regarding the delivery delay involving railcar manufacturer Dawonsys, "we transferred all documents from our internal audit to the Board of Audit and Inspection."
At a "Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport press corps briefing" that day, the Vice Minister said, "While we were conducting an internal audit of the Dawonsys issue, we were contacted that the Board of Audit and Inspection would proceed with the audit." Dawonsys signed a 1 trillion won supply contract with the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) but failed to properly carry it out, sparking controversy. In December last year, President Lee Jae-myung also said, "Isn't it that a government agency was scammed?"
The Vice Minister said, "We will only be able to get a refund through the guarantee insurer in June for the quantities we did not receive under the contract," adding, "If the first-batch contracted quantities are not supplied by the end of June, we will consider terminating the contract." The Vice Minister continued, "For the second-batch contract as well, we will receive as much supply as possible by the end of the year, and if anything beyond that is not supplied, we will consider termination."
Regarding the construction of Busan's Gadeokdo New Airport, the Vice Minister said, "We will break ground in earnest at the end of the year." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) is currently pushing a negotiated contract with a Daewoo Engineering & Construction consortium for site preparation work. The Vice Minister said, "We will not rush the schedule solely to meet the deadline."
Also that day, the Vice Minister said, "In the 5th national rail network master plan (2026–2035), the total size of projects proposed by local governments exceeds 600 trillion won," adding, "We are pursuing measures to raise the budget ceiling to reflect as much as possible." The national rail network master plan is the top-tier statutory plan in the rail sector established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).
The Vice Minister added, "In the previous (4th) rail network plan, the size of newly included projects was about 43 trillion won," and "If we receive a ceiling of about that level from the Ministry of Planning and Budget, it would be woefully insufficient, so we are asking for a significant increase in the budget."