Kim Yoon-deok, the nominee for Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, has been accused of failing to report multiple assets.
According to documents submitted to the National Assembly on the 25th regarding Kim's confirmation hearing request and Kim Jong-yang, a lawmaker of the People Power Party (National Assembly Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee), Kim's eldest daughter obtained a loan of 100 million won after securing employment in Seoul in 2022, which she used to sign a lease contract for an apartment worth 550 million won.
Kim's asset declaration for 2023 indicated that Kim and his spouse had arranged approximately 308.32 million won through debt recovery between individuals, personal debts, and loans from financial institutions. This money is suspected to have been used to support the security deposit for their child's lease. However, there were no records of Kim and his spouse or direct descendants reporting or paying inheritance tax or gift tax to the tax authorities.
Looking at the asset statement declared this year by Kim, a bond of 550 million won is reported in his eldest daughter's name.
However, the supplementary documents related to the asset declaration submitted to the National Assembly show that he and his spouse are indicated to have lent 470 million won and 180 million won to their eldest daughter, respectively. The amounts reported as lent to the daughter do not match in the two documents, with one showing 550 million won and the other 650 million won.
In response, Kim's confirmation hearing preparation team explained that "there were errors in past asset declarations" and that they have corrected this in the current confirmation request, noting that the amount lent to the eldest daughter is indeed 650 million won, not 550 million won.
Additionally, the repayment process for the loan of 100 million won that Kim's eldest daughter obtained for the apartment lease in 2022 is also unclear. Kim's eldest daughter reported repaying 75 million won in 2023 and 25 million won last year on the loan. However, the income reported in the withholding tax receipts submitted by her last year was 44.7 million won, with expenditures recorded at 56.26 million won.
Concerns have been raised regarding the unclear source of funds used for the repayments, given that it appears she does not have the financial capacity to repay the loans.
Regarding this, Kim's side stated, "There were some errors in the nominee's past asset declarations," and they added, "We plan to clarify this at the hearing."
Kim noted, "There are suspicions of habitual asset declaration omissions by the Minister of Land who oversees real estate policy," adding, "If suspicions of continuous asset declaration omissions related to children's lease funds or criticisms of 'parental advantage' arise, the credibility of government policies will inevitably be compromised."