[Gangnam Perspective] Thank You, Lee Hye-hoon

After former nominee for minister of the Ministry of Planning and Budget Lee Hye-hoon (hereafter "Lee Hye-hoon") saw her nomination collapse, the media turned its fire on the personnel vetting system. Commentators argue that the sloppy vetting net failed to catch fraudulent housing subscriptions and allegations of abuse of power toward her aides, and they are calling for genuinely balanced appointments.
In principle, that criticism is valid, but if the focus stays only on personnel vetting, nothing will change. In Korea, the president’s thinking is said to be crucial in appointing senior political officials. When the president is strongly committed to a particular appointment, the mesh of the vetting net tends to become loose; when the president is less interested, the net can actually become tighter. Every time there has been a personnel debacle in the past, vetting was blamed, yet nothing changed. The problem lies with the people casting the net, not with the net itself.
Korean society has a different task. We need to climb down into the sinkhole that we would have passed by without noticing if this incident had not occurred. How wide and how deep is this hole, and is it even possible to fill it? We must search for answers to these questions.
One cross-section of that sinkhole is fraudulent housing subscriptions. Ordinary people apply for apartments trusting the government. They get rejected outright time after time, yet still try again because they believe the subscription system is operating fairly. The suspicions of fraudulent subscriptions have shattered that belief. The rough story is that Lee Hye-hoon listed her eldest son, who married in July 2024, as a dependent family member, won a lottery-style housing subscription, and then the son moved out shortly afterward.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had already inspected the situation for the second half of 2024, when Lee Hye-hoon applied, and uncovered 390 improper cases. It even issued a press release summarizing various types of fraud, but Lee’s case was not among them. Why not?
After a successful applicant signs the contract, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) estimates whether fraud occurred based on the submitted documents. Because the only basis is paperwork, the process is difficult and imprecise. One official gave this example: "On paper, there are four adult family members, but the home is 22 pyeong, about 72 square meters, with three rooms. In that case, the likelihood of a fraudulent subscription is high. It is hard to imagine putting fully grown children in the same room. When something looks odd by common sense, we refer it for investigation."
At first glance, Lee Hye-hoon seems to fit that pattern, but in fact she does not. MOLIT only checks whether a dependent family member has been listed on the resident registration for at least one year. Whether they actually live there is outside the scope of verification. It defies common sense that Lee’s son moved out right after winning the apartment, but MOLIT said that in itself is not illegal. The only criterion in the public notice is whether the person "has been on the resident registration for at least one year." People may be furious now, but once an investigation and legal battle begin, the outcome is anyone’s guess.
Above all, officials say that many fake divorces and sham marriages are uncovered thanks to tip-offs. It follows that a considerable number of fraudulent winners must have slipped through.
Even this alone is absurd and disheartening, but it does not end there. Is it possible to strengthen ex post facto investigations so that there will be no second Lee Hye-hoon? That too is difficult. Each year, about 300,000 people win apartment subscriptions, and if you include those who fail, more than one million people are involved in the process. MOLIT believes it is nearly impossible to treat all of them as potential fraudsters and subject them to investigation and criminal probes. Officials also warn that "innocent people could suffer and face enormous inconvenience." The ending already seems to be in sight.
The allegations that she abused her aides point to another sinkhole in our society. For years, people have joked about the "big three" or "big four" of abusive politicians. Many in politics knew who they were, and the media had heard the stories, but no one raised the issue. It was dismissed as individual misconduct.
The sinkholes of fraudulent housing subscriptions and abuse of subordinates have been growing underground. Exposing such dangers is painful and frightening. Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand in front of a predator, have we convinced ourselves that if we cannot see the problem, the danger no longer exists?
Fraudulent housing subscriptions and abuse of people are long-standing problems in Korean society. We wanted to believe they had somehow resolved themselves, but nothing has changed. The Lee Hye-hoon affair has reminded us of that fact. It has switched on a warning light, telling us to prepare solid gravel, sand, and concrete to fill in the sinkholes. For that, I am grateful to Lee Hye-hoon.
syhong@fnnews.com