Bae says Lee used more water at presidential residence than Yoon in first year

People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin has claimed that President Lee Jae Myung used about 16 percent more tap water in his first year at the presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, than former President Yoon Suk Yeol did in his own first year there.

According to water billing records for the Hannam-dong residence that Bae obtained and released Tuesday, total water consumption at the residence came to 8,612 metric tons in the year following Lee's move-in on June 5, 2025. The water bill for the same period totaled 28.61 million won ($20,700).

Yoon, who moved into the Hannam-dong residence on Nov. 7, 2022, used 7,406 metric tons of water in his first year there, with a water bill of 23.59 million won. Comparing each president's first year after moving in, Lee's household used 1,206 metric tons — or 16.3 percent — more water, and paid 5.02 million won, or 21.3 percent, more in water charges.

Bae said that because various allegations had been raised based on water usage figures during Yoon's tenure, an explanation was needed for why consumption had increased under the current administration.

Last June, Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hong-keun released a photo taken during a dinner Lee hosted for Democratic Party leadership at the residence, showing a rectangular water tank roughly 5 meters long installed on the lawn, and said speculation had emerged that it might be "a dog swimming pool."

Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Hyun-hee, who attended the dinner, also told reporters afterward that there was a pool-like structure in the middle of the outdoor lawn that seemed out of place with its surroundings, and said attendees had remarked that it looked like a dog swimming pool.

At the time, some in political circles also raised the claim that the structure might be connected to a shamanistic water ritual.

Bae wrote on Facebook that critics had "gone on and on about water being wasted on a dog swimming pool and shamanistic rituals, yet President Lee Jae Myung and his wife used even more water over the past year," and asked, "Did the president and his wife perform a ritual too? What exactly were they doing?"

Bae added, "It has been well over a year since he took office — how much longer are they going to stay put at the residence, making one excuse after another about renovating Cheong Wa Dae?"