Special Prosecutor's Task Force to Summon Won Hee-ryong Again Next Month Over Alleged Seoul–Yangpyeong Expressway Cover-Up

[Financial News] The Special Prosecutor's Task Force, which is investigating allegations that the endpoint of the Seoul–Yangpyeong Expressway was changed, will summon former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong for questioning again.
In a notice on the 29th, the task force said, "We plan to summon the former minister at 10 a.m. on August 6," and added, "A further summons has not been decided."
At the center of the Seoul–Yangpyeong Expressway controversy is whether there was preferential treatment in the process of changing the expressway's endpoint from Yangseo-myeon in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, to Gangsang-myeon, where land owned by the family of First Lady Kim Keon-hee is located, after the launch of the Yoon Suk Yeol government.
Won is accused of unlawfully scrapping the project after the controversy over the endpoint change emerged. He is also suspected of ordering the release of a press statement that contradicted a legal review, even after being told there was a possibility of violating the law.
The project passed a preliminary feasibility study in 2021, but the controversy grew after it became known that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had reviewed a possible endpoint change. Won later declared the project scrapped in July 2023.
Earlier, the Special Prosecutor for Kim Keon-hee, led by Special Counsel Min Joung-kie, investigated Won as the alleged "higher-up" who ordered the endpoint change, but the probe ended without establishing the charges. Won underwent his first suspect interrogation by the Special Prosecutor's Task Force for about nine hours on the 23rd.
At the time, Won denied all allegations as he arrived, saying, "They investigated this for more than a year, claiming I was pushing for highway favoritism. When that failed, it seems they are now trying to shift the target of the investigation to my declaration that the project would be scrapped."
However, the task force did not seek to extend the travel ban on Won after it expired. It is understood to have judged that there was little need for a further travel ban, given that key evidence had already been secured during the first questioning under the Special Prosecutor for Kim Keon-hee, including forensic analysis of seized mobile phones.
 
[email protected] Choi Eun-sol Reporter