President Lee Han-joon of the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) on the 14th said that LH's shift from selling public housing sites to private developers to directly implementing projects is "an opportunity to shed the stigma that LH is in the land-selling business."

Lee Han-jun, president of Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH), answers questions at the National Assembly Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee's audit held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 14th. /Courtesy of News1

At the Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee's audit at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the same day, Lee said, "Because of the stigma that LH is in the land-selling business, employee morale has dropped significantly, but this is not something LH wanted to do."

Lee said, "That is what the law requires. We have done so to build rental dwellings through cross-subsidization and to promote balanced development," adding, "In the end, as the head of the agency, I am very sorry that LH's lack of capability led to this stigma."

He added, "Going forward, as we directly implement projects, this creates an opportunity to escape the stigma of being in the land-selling business."

Through the Sept. 7 housing supply plan, the government said it would expand LH's role by having it directly implement, rather than sell to private developers, housing sites developed by LH, and would start construction on 75,000 dwellings by 2030.

In addition, when Rep. Cheon Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea pointed out that the method of expanding personnel to strengthen LH's project implementation function should be improved, Lee said, "As a public developer, securing top talent is the most important, but there are problems with the current regional talent quota system," and added, "As LH and other public corporations transfer to innovation cities and hire regional talent, a cartel of certain universities could form."

He went on, "The regional talent hiring quota system is good, but it would be better to broaden its scope," adding, "Divide it into the Seoul metropolitan area and non-metropolitan areas, and use a wider talent pool so that someone from South Jeolla can go to LH (headquartered in Jinju), and someone from South Gyeongsang can go to Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) (located in Naju)."

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