Yong Hye-in Purchased Real Estate on the Same Day She Criticized Moves That Would "Open the Floodgates to Speculation"

[Anchor]

We continue with our verification coverage of Yong Hye-in, nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family. Nominee Yong argued back in 2021 that the government needed to curb income generated from real estate rather than working in the National Assembly. However, Yong purchased real estate on that exact same day.

Reporter Jo Yoon-ha has the details.

[Reporter]

On April 20, 2021, amid a sharp surge in housing prices, Yong Hye-in, then a sitting lawmaker and currently the nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, took the floor at the National Assembly's questioning of the government.

Raising her voice, she stated, "The government and the ruling party are showing moves to ease holding taxes and loan regulations to appease public anger over real estate policy failures," adding that "this will wide open the doors to real estate speculation."

She then made the following remarks:

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (April 2021): Solving this problem must begin with tackling unearned real estate income, not by raising the stakes for speculation.]

We examined the registry transcript of a multi-family housing unit in Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, purchased by Nominee Yong that year.

The transaction date is April 20, which coincides with the day Nominee Yong delivered her interpelation at the National Assembly.

Nominee Yong bought the multi-family house for 245 million won and sold it in less than a year for 20 million won more than her purchase price.

Nominee Yong maintains that the purchase was for actual residency purposes, and she has been living in a jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) home ever since.

Inquiries regarding whether she intends to resign from her proportional representation lawmaker position continued today (the 9th), but Nominee Yong remained silent.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family: (Do you have any change in stance regarding holding concurrent positions?) Thank you for your hard work.]

Four years ago, Nominee Yong used the expression "clinging to the position" against the then-Minister of Gender Equality and Family.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (October 2022): Madam Minister, earlier you stated that you would not answer regarding your resignation at the end. I think it looks quite pathetic to see you clinging to your position.]

The schedule for Nominee Yong's confirmation hearing has not yet been set.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin, VJ: Shin So-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.