Han Dong-hoon calls for tax probe of President Lee over 'novel real estate deal'

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon on Wednesday called for a tax investigation into President Lee Jae Myung over the sale of Lee's apartment in Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, saying Lee had told the public not to use leveraged home purchases while conducting his own private transaction "in a way no one has ever seen before."

Speaking on TV Chosun's "News Parade" that day, Han said the National Tax Service had ruled out leveraging through private debt, yet Lee had done exactly that while telling ordinary citizens not to. "President Lee Jae Myung should be subject to a tax investigation," he said.

Han said Lee was well versed in real estate matters. "Even during the Daejang-dong affair, he talked about the corrupt links as if they were some novel real estate technique — and now, selling his own home, he has invented yet another novel real estate transaction method," Han said. He added that he had heard a real estate debate was scheduled for Thursday and would be watching to see what Lee had to say.

Han then criticized Lee for undermining public trust in regulatory consistency. "Real estate regulation requires consistency, and President Lee has completely destroyed that trust with this novel mortgage transaction involving himself," he said.

Han also urged the Democratic Party of Korea to immediately drop its push to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation rights.

Regarding the open debate he had proposed, Han said not a single one of the Democratic Party's 161 lawmakers had come forward. "It is absurd to try to dismantle a system that has served the public for 80 years with a policy so weak it cannot even withstand a debate," he said.

He warned that banning supplementary investigations, as the Democratic Party advocates, would lead to a sharp rise in cases of concealed deaths like the Jang Yun-gi case, and that ordinary citizens defrauded of money would be trapped in a "ping-pong hell" between police and prosecutors with no resolution. "The public will suffer greatly," he said.

Asked whether there was any Democratic Party lawmaker he would name as a debate opponent, Han said he doubted he could explain the policy even if he were a Democratic Party member himself. "It is not that there is no explanation — there is no solution. That is why all 161 of them are running away," he said.

Han also repeated his earlier argument that abolishing supplementary investigation rights would amount to the privatization of justice.

He said that in the past, prosecutors had acted as representatives of victims and issued written decisions — including no-charge rulings — even in minor cases, which victims could then use to pursue civil litigation. "Now cases are closed at the police stage with a decision not to refer, and the reasons are barely written down. Ultimately, citizens have to hire lawyers at their own expense to seek redress," he said.

Han said that for cases involving 5 million won ($3,390) or 10 million won, the cost of legal representation would exceed the amount at stake. "Ordinary people who fall victim to fraud involving those sums will face a world where they have to give up on seeking justice. That is the world of judicial privatization that the Democratic Party is creating," he said.

On the argument that police could take over the role of prosecutors, Han said policing and investigation were distinct from legal judgment. "The Democratic Party is simply stripping away a function that already existed and offering no alternative," he said.

Han also criticized the Democratic Party for pushing to abolish the prosecution while simultaneously introducing a string of special prosecutors.

"The omnibus special prosecutor the Democratic Party is pursuing is the very embodiment of the extreme political prosecution it has long criticized," Han said. "The party argues that investigation and indictment should be separated, yet a special prosecutor combines the two to an extreme degree."

He added that after October the prosecution as an institution would cease to exist. "Let's see whether they still talk about special prosecutors after that. Surely they are pursuing special prosecutors because they themselves believe the prosecution system is more useful," he said.

On the question of rejoining the People Power Party, Han said the public wanted a conservative politics capable of properly checking the Democratic Party's misrule and reclaiming power. "I will work hard on that path," he said.

Asked when he might return to the party, Han said he had promised since his unjust expulsion that he would "definitely come back." "I will let those words speak for themselves," he said.