Real Estate Policy Dispute: Jung Says "Blaming Others for Broken Promises," Oh Blames "Park Won-soon"

Jung Won-oh, the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral candidate, and Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party's candidate, continued to clash over Seoul's real estate policy achievements on May 28. Candidate Jung criticized Oh, stating, "Why do you blame the government for failing to keep your housing supply promises?" In response, Oh argued, "It is because weed killer was sprayed during the term of former Mayor Park Won-soon."

On the afternoon of the same day, Jung attended the 9th Seoul mayoral candidate debate for the nationwide local elections, hosted by the Seoul Election Broadcasting Debate Commission. Targeting Oh, Jung stated, "When you ran in the 8th local elections in 2021, you promised to supply 360,000 housing units within five years. However, according to Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport statistics, only 39,000 units were supplied, which is less than half of the promise."

Jung further emphasized, "To increase the housing supply, a variety of supply methods are needed, but Oh neglected urban public-private joint development projects and remodeling projects." Oh countered, "It’s not that we did not support remodeling. Rather, the popularity of reconstruction projects caused remodeling to lose momentum," adding, "You keep saying we didn't do it, but that's not accurate."

Oh then launched a counterattack by referencing the real estate policies of former Mayor Park Won-soon, who was affiliated with the Democratic Party. He said, "People say I blame my predecessor, but the former mayor canceled redevelopment and reconstruction designations in 389 areas," and continued, "In short, he wiped everything out, sprayed weed killer, and now expects us to restore everything to its original state."

Yonhap News Agency

Oh also responded to Jung's claim that, as Seongdong District Chief during Park’s tenure, he had voiced harsh criticisms about city policy. Oh said, "What good is it to speak up if you don't achieve anything? Those words are meaningless if they don't lead to results."

Jung raised the issue of unused budget funds for purchased rental housing during a question to Kwon Young-guk, the Justice Party candidate. Kwon argued, "Construction-based rentals are limited due to land constraints, so providing public rental housing through purchase-based rentals would have been important to solving Seoul’s housing problems in the future," and added, "If the purchase budget was left unused, it means the pain was shifted onto Seoul citizens." In response, Oh referred again to former Mayor Park, stating, "The number of purchased rental houses actually increased compared to Park’s administration."

Meanwhile, Kim Jung-chul, the Reform Party candidate, targeted both Jung and Oh. Addressing Oh, he said, "You claim that the Rapid Integrated Planning Project would allow for quick supply, but it hasn’t been effective at all. In reality, not a single house has been built through this project." Criticizing Jung, he said, "In Haengdang District 7, the issue with daycare centers has prevented even property registration. You talk about 'swift development' in redevelopment and reconstruction, but it is not feasible at all."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.