Cheon Ha-ram Alleges Defense Minister Nominee Gained Redevelopment Resident Status Through False Address and Illegally Won Seocho Apartment

Reform Party acting leader Cheon Ha-ram has accused Defense Minister nominee Kang Shin-chul of using a false address registration to obtain redevelopment-resident status and secure a special apartment allocation in Seoul's Seocho District.

At a National Assembly news conference on the 6th, Cheon said evidence suggested Kang had acquired the Seocho Nature Hill 3 apartment through a “redevelopment resident performance.” The apartment is now worth about 2.2 billion won, according to Cheon.

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Evidence has emerged that the nominee obtained the Seocho Nature Hill 3 apartment, now worth 2.2 billion won, through a redevelopment resident performance.

Documents released by Cheon show that Kang, then serving as a battalion commander at a military unit in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, registered himself and his wife at a home he owned in Cheonwang-dong, Guro District, in March 2008. Their two children remained registered at a home owned by Kang's father-in-law in Bundang, Seongnam.

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Could a battalion commander at a frontline unit have commuted from Seoul or remained on emergency standby there?

Seven months later, the Cheonwang-dong home became part of a site for the relocation of Seoul Southern Detention Center and was bought by Guro District as part of compensation measures. Kang then qualified as a redevelopment resident. He and his wife moved their registration back to a military apartment in Hwacheon in May 2009. About three years later, in August 2012, Kang received the Seocho Nature Hill 3 apartment, which was supplied on a 100% priority basis to redevelopment residents.

Cheon questioned whether a battalion commander at a frontline unit could have commuted from Seoul or remained on emergency standby there, and called the registration a false move. He said the apartment's price had risen from 520 million won at the time of allocation to about 2.2 billion won, while Kang allegedly did not live in it and instead stayed until 2020 in a nearby apartment allocated to his father. Cheon linked the allegation to President Lee Jae-myung's emphasis on cracking down on unearned real-estate income and called Kang an example of such gains. The article presents the claims as allegations by Cheon.

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The very embodiment of unearned income that destroys fairness and common sense by taking an apartment meant for redevelopment residents and illegally increasing his wealth.