Ahn Cheol-soo calls for disclosure of land holdings tied to Honam region; Ko Dong-jin says RE100 renewable energy push is 'deeply misguided'

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo [The Herald Business DB]
People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo [The Herald Business DB]

By Jung Seok-jun, The Herald Business

Opposition voices continued to mount Sunday against plans to build a semiconductor cluster in the Honam region, with critics raising concerns over inadequate infrastructure and alleging that government and ruling party figures may be positioned to profit from land speculation.

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo wrote on Facebook that "Lee Jae Myung's Cheong Wa Dae has staked everything on 'Honam semiconductors,'" adding that President Lee had posted seven entries over a single weekend in what Ahn called a runaway push.

Ahn said land around the expected site for a Samsung Electronics plant in the Honam region had already caught fire with speculation. "Investment inquiries are flooding in at a level people say they have never seen in their lifetimes, and all existing listings have reportedly disappeared," he said.

He warned that the harder the government pushed ahead with the Honam semiconductor project, the more sharply property and land prices would rise — not only at the planned site itself but in surrounding commercial and residential areas. Land along associated road, rail and water logistics corridors would also surge in value, he said, because such sites are indispensable to factory operations and sellers can name their price.

"Ultimately, the Honam semiconductor factory will create a multitude of land millionaires," Ahn said. "Massive land compensation payouts and capital gains will rain down on people. Can anyone say with certainty that none of those people will be government officials or ruling party figures?"

He called on officials of the Lee Jae Myung administration — including Democratic Party Assembly members, local government heads, local council members and party officials — to immediately disclose their land holdings in the Honam region. "The Honam semiconductor investment is ultimately a speculative windfall project for someone, and it will not be long before it becomes the subject of a special prosecutor investigation," he said.

Ko Dong-jin, a People Power Party lawmaker and former Samsung Electronics executive, appeared on MBC Radio that day and raised concerns about infrastructure, particularly water and power supply. "When semiconductors come up, the conversation always comes down to the site, then what people call the three battles — manpower, water and electricity — and then the money war," Ko said. "Anyone who knows even a little about semiconductors will feel like: how can they be talking about this without understanding any of it?"

Ko said water recycling technology had improved enough in recent years that water supply deserved separate, deeper examination. On energy, however, he was unequivocal. "It is deeply misguided to talk about RE100 renewable energy in the context of advanced semiconductor processes," he said. "To supply 10 gigawatts of electricity to Samsung Electronics' national industrial complex in Yongin using solar power alone, you would need to cover 170 million pyeong — the equivalent of the entire city of Seoul — with solar panels, and then install energy storage systems ten times the size of a football pitch."


mp1256@heraldcorp.com