[micro feature · current affairs and military] south korea's presidential office found a "worm" involved in falsely reporting project funds
2024-09-13
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[xinhua news agency micro feature] south korean judicial sources said on the 13th that a senior official of the south korean presidential guard was arrested on suspicion of using false bulletproof glass project funds to seek personal gain during the relocation of the presidential palace, causing more than 1.5 billion won (about 8 million yuan) in losses to the national treasury.
yonhap news agency reported, citing judicial sources, that the seoul central district prosecutors' office arrested zheng, an official from the presidential palace security department, and kim, a middleman from the construction company who signed the contract, on the 12th.
the prosecution determined that chung had entrusted the bulletproof glass installation project to kim by appointing him as the project supervisor. the two had a relationship in the past when they built residences for former presidents after they retired from office.
after yoon seok-yeol took office as president of south korea in may 2022, in order to fulfill his campaign promise to better communicate with the people, he moved the presidential palace from the blue house to the ministry of national defense building in yongsan district, seoul. the blue house was open to visitors, and the ministry of national defense building was converted into the presidential palace, ushering in the so-called "yongsan presidential palace era."
the board of audit and inspection asked prosecutors to investigate the alleged cost exaggeration of the construction company of the bulletproof glass installation project for the new presidential palace in october last year. the audit department said that the project cost 2.04 billion won, but the actual cost was only 470 million won.
the prosecution accused zheng of defrauding 280 million won, and kim of bribes or promises to bribe him a total of 86 million won; in the process of selecting a construction company, kim exaggerated the project cost by 4 times and pocketed 1.57 billion won.
in october 2022, the civil group "participation in solidarity" requested the south korean board of audit and inspection to investigate several suspicious points in the relocation of the presidential palace. in december of the same year, the board of audit and inspection decided to investigate two of the suspicious points. one is whether there are illegal acts such as corruption and abuse of power in the relocation decision-making process, and the other is whether the relevant contract law is violated in the signing of the construction contract. according to south korea's "joongang ilbo", the core reason for the "participation in solidarity" to initiate the request is that "first lady" kim gun-hee is suspected of participating in the selection process of the construction company, and there are personal commercial interests behind it.
the latest poll results released by gallup korea, a south korean public opinion survey organization, on the 13th showed that yoon seok-yeol's approval rating for his administration dropped to 20%, a new low since he took office, while his disapproval rating rose to 70%, a new high. (end) (hu ruoyu)
