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Following the disclosure of public officials' assets earlier this year, the ownership of multiple homes by some high-ranking officials became a subject of controversy. Among them, the Cheong Wa Dae press support secretary, often referred to as the Chunchugwan director, still owns multiple properties. According to our reporting, the first floor, which is marked as a stairwell on the blueprints, was illegally expanded and leased out to collect monthly rent.

Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon has this exclusive report.

[Reporter]

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

Kim Sang-ho, the press support secretary at Cheong Wa Dae who serves as a Grade 1 public official, purchased the entire building together with his spouse in 2014 for 1.77 billion won.

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

According to public officials' asset details, the reported value is 4 billion won, and it is listed as accommodating six households.

The architectural ledger also indicates that only the second through fifth floors, totaling six units, 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 marked as "Unit 101" clearly exists on the first floor.

Next to the first-floor parking lot, which features a pilotis structure, the "stairwell" was partitioned to create a residential space.

[Nearby Real Estate Agent : (Why is there a Unit 101?) There is no Unit 101... That's just an unauthorized thing, it doesn't have a registration.]

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

[Gangnam-gu Office Official : According to the blueprints, it is designated as a parking lot, along with the stairwell. If a housing unit was created and space was added, then it falls under unauthorized expansion.]

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

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SBS has repeatedly asked Secretary Kim Sang-ho for his stance regarding the illegal expansion since last week, but Secretary Kim, who is reportedly to have submitted his resignation earlier this month, did not respond.

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At the time when public officials' asset disclosures were made public earlier this year, Lee Sung-hoon, the former Cheong Wa Dae secretary for land, infrastructure and transport, became controversial for owning multiple homes despite directly handling real estate policy matters.

Last month, he moved to the position of president of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, but he remains a multi-home owner as he and his spouse hold shares in one apartment in Sejong and one multi-family house in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

In response to inquiries from SBS asking about plans to sell the properties, President Lee Sung-hoon's side stated, "We have signed a contract to sell the Sejong apartment, but it is taking time to complete the registration due to tenant issues."

(Photo : Lee Byung-ju, Video Editing : Park Sun-su, Video Source : LH YouTube Channel)