Blue House Secretary with Multiple Homes Earned Monthly Rent from Illegally Extended Villa

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Kim Sang-ho, secretary for press support at the Blue House, owns a multi-family housing unit in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It has been confirmed that the first floor, originally designated as a stairwell, was illegally extended and rented out for monthly income. Secretary Kim has reportedly submitted his resignation.

Reporter Kim Hye-young has the story.


[Reporter]

This is a five-story multi-family building located in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

As a Grade 1 public official and head of the Chunchugwan press office at the Blue House, Press Support Secretary Kim Sang-ho and his spouse purchased the entire building together for 1.77 billion won in 2014.

Secretary Kim registered as a private rental business operator the following year and remains a multi-home owner who still holds this property.

According to public officials' property disclosures, the reported value is 4 billion won, and it is listed as housing six households.

The building ledger also indicates that only floors two through five, totaling six households, are residential spaces where people can live, while the first floor is designated solely as a "stairwell."

We visited the site.

However, a studio apartment clearly labeled as "Room 101" stands on the first floor.

The "stairwell" next to the pilotis-structure parking lot on the first floor was partitioned to create a living space.

[Nearby Real Estate Agent : (Why is there a Room 101?) There is no Room 101... That's just an unauthorized thing without registration.]

When asked if this constituted a violation, the district office responded as follows.

[Gangnam District Office Official : According to the blueprints, it is designated as a parking lot. Along with the stairwell, if a housing unit was created and included in the floor area, then it falls under unauthorized extension.]

When we met a tenant living in "Room 101," they stated, "I pay 850,000 won in monthly rent and the deposit is 10 million won."

SBS repeatedly sent inquiries to Secretary Kim Sang-ho since last week asking for his stance on the unauthorized extension, but Secretary Kim, who reportedly submitted his resignation earlier this month, did not respond.

Following the SBS report yesterday (August 10), Secretary Kim released a statement saying, "When the property was purchased in 2014, part of the parking lot had already been converted into a studio apartment, and I neither extended it myself nor ordered the extension." He added, "I take heavily the fact that, as a result, necessary administrative procedures were not carried out in a timely manner."

He further added, "We plan to actively pursue legalization procedures through a review by experts."

(Video by Lee Byung-joo, Video Editing by Park Sun-soo, Video Source: LH YouTube Channel)

※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.