Cheon Ha-ram, acting leader of the Reform Party, on the 7th said, "The son of Minister of National Defense nominee Kang Shin-cheol bought a commercial unit in Bundang Yangji Village where President Lee Jae-myung had lived for 700 million won, but it is missing from the property list in the confirmation request for the personnel hearing," and noted, "A thorough explanation is needed as to how a son born in 1996, who was discharged last year and has been employed for only one year, managed to come up with 700 million won."
Cheon said at a press conference at the National Assembly that day, "Looking at the property list submitted by the nominee, there are real estate holdings for the nominee and the eldest daughter, but there is no record at all of the son's real estate ownership," and added, "In reality, nominee Kang Shin-cheol's son owned the same Bundang Yangji Village commercial unit as President Lee Jae-myung."
Presenting the certified copy of the real estate register for the parcel, Cheon said, "It shows that on June 30 this year the nominee's son purchased the Bundang Yangji Village commercial unit for 700 million won," and added, "The nominee and the government deceived the public and the National Assembly and concealed assets amounting to as much as 700 million won."
Cheon said, "Given the size of the commercial unit the nominee's son purchased, experts assess that if it is redeveloped, it could yield one apartment unit," adding, "If it is redeveloped, Yangji Village would easily exceed 3 billion to 4 billion won at the very least."
Cheon said, "Even looking at the property list published in the official gazette in April this year, when the nominee became ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the nominee's son did not have 700 million won, let alone 70 million won," and pressed, "The nominee's son was discharged from the Reserve Officers' Training Corps in June last year and has been employed at a mid-sized company for only a year. How could a person born in 1996, who would struggle to raise tens of millions of won just to pay the acquisition tax, come up with as much as 700 million won to purchase a commercial unit?"
Cheon added, "What's more, the purchase was made on June 30, just before the designation of the project implementer, as if aiming to succeed to redevelopment association membership," and noted, "Unless parents or grandparents secretly gifted funds and instructed it, this cannot be explained."
Regarding this, nominee Kang Shin-cheol's side said, "On Sept. 4 we discovered that details related to the eldest son's real estate holdings were omitted from the list of disclosures of public office candidate property in the personnel hearing request submitted to the National Assembly, and we immediately explained the relevant facts to the National Assembly and related institutions, submitted additional necessary materials, and completed follow-up measures."
They added, "The relevant real estate details were added after the 2026 regular property filing, and while the related local government tax payment records were already attached to the personnel hearing request, we confirmed that they were not included in the compiled list because it was prepared based on the regular property filing."