The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said on the 27th that it will conduct a reinvestigation from the 1st to the 31st of next month into illegal occupation facilities in rivers and valleys.
The investigation follows President Lee Jae-myung's instruction at the Cabinet meeting on the 24th to "conduct a full reinvestigation into illegal occupation facilities in valleys and strictly discipline the local governments if any were omitted."
At the Cabinet meeting, when Yoon Ho-jung, Minister of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), reported that "835 cases of illegal occupation nationwide were found in the national fact-finding survey," President Lee said, "When I investigated in Gyeonggi Province, it seemed there were more. There is no way it is only 835 cases."
In response, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) will form a government-level consultative body and divide roles by agency to check whether any illegal occupation facilities were omitted. First, it will conduct a first-round investigation for the month of March, followed by an additional investigation in June before the rainy season.
The government plans to reinvestigate all illegal occupation facilities by responsible party. It will expand the scope to blind spots outside river zones. It will also designate July to September this year as an intensive crackdown period and deploy dedicated personnel, including special judicial police, to each local government to root out illegal acts.
During the reinvestigation period, it will check through safety inspections whether the reinvestigation is proceeding properly, and if intentional omissions or poor management are revealed, it will impose disciplinary action on those involved alongside institutional warnings. In cases where the matter is serious, such as colluding with business owners to conceal illegal occupation facilities, it will refer the case to investigative authorities to punish those involved.
Yoon Ho-jung, Minister of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), said, "Public officials in charge should approach the reinvestigation with the resolve to completely eradicate illegal occupation acts this time."