The second comprehensive special counsel team led by Kwon Chang-young will question former Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong on the 23rd over allegations of a route change to the Yangpyeong Expressway.
The special counsel team announced through a media notice on the 18th that "Won will appear for questioning at 10 a.m. on the 23rd."
The investigation into the Yangpyeong Expressway route change centers on whether it was a favor when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) shifted the terminal route to an area around land owned by first lady Kim Keon-hee's family while pursuing the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway project in 2023. Through a preliminary feasibility study in 2021, Yangseo-myeon had been decided as the terminal route. In May 2023, the ministry additionally reviewed Gangsang-myeon, where the Kim family's land is located, as the terminal route. As controversy grew over the route change, Won declared the project scrapped in July of the same year.
The special counsel team's investigation of Won has not been progressing quickly. The team notified Won of the investigation twice, but the notices were not delivered to him. In March, the team barred Won from leaving the country, and on the 15th it seized his mobile phone.
On the 15th, Won pushed back on Facebook, saying, "I will never yield to an excessive investigation and unjust application of the law." The Min Joong-ki special counsel, which was launched before the comprehensive special counsel, failed to establish charges against Won.
