South Korean prosecutors have dropped a case filed against President Lee Jae-myung over alleged preferential treatment in the development of a Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) site in Jeongja-dong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, three years after the initial complaint.
According to legal sources on the 27th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 3 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (led by Chief Prosecutor Kim Jin-yong) dismissed the case on the 17th, in which Lee had been accused of abuse of authority, obstruction of rights, and dereliction of duty.
A dismissal is a disposition that closes a case without examining its merits, on the grounds that the procedural requirements for prosecution have not been met. The prosecution determined that the complaint was speculative and lacked sufficient specific grounds or circumstances to warrant launching an investigation.
The case centered on allegations that Lee, while serving as mayor of Seongnam, granted preferential treatment during the redevelopment of the former KOGAS site at 215 Jeongja-dong, Bundang District, into a residential complex. According to the complaint, Lee permitted housing development on the site and raised the floor area ratio to 560 percent in exchange for conditions such as the donation of buildings to the city. After KOGAS relocated its headquarters to Daegu in September 2014, the site was put up for sale but failed to attract buyers through six rounds of auctions. The land, designated for business and commercial use, was subject to restrictions including a floor area ratio of 400 percent or less and a building coverage ratio of 80 percent or less.
In March 2023, the conservative civic group Jayu Daehan Hoguk-dan filed the complaint against Lee with prosecutors, arguing that "without confirming commitments such as attracting major corporations, the rezoning and increase in the floor area ratio proceeded swiftly within a year after Company A proposed a 'business-residential mixed-use complex' under conditions including the donation of buildings."
