Hankyoreh newspaper

Rep. Jang Je-won (3rd term, Busan Sasang), who is considered a key member of the People Power Party’s pro-Yoon Seok faction (pro-Yoon faction), hinted on the 11th that he would not run in next year’s general election. Rep. Jang posted on his Facebook page this evening along with photos of visiting the grave of his father, the late former Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Jang Seong-man, with the message, “I found my father Sanso.” “As time passes, it becomes clearer how great the legacy of faith my father gave me is,” he wrote. He continued, “I miss you father! “Now I’m going to pause for a moment,” he wrote. He said, “No matter how pitch-black darkness surrounds me, I also believe in your faith, telling me to believe and pray that God is preparing something better.” He added, “I miss you, father. “I love you,” he said. Rep. Jang’s father, former Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Jang Seong-man, was elected from Buk-gu, Busan in 1981 and 1985 and served as a member of the 11th and 12th National Assembly. Dongseo Academy, founded by former Vice Chairman Jang, is located in Sasang-gu, Busan. Rep. Jang served as a member of the 18th, 20th, and 21st National Assembly in Sasang-gu, which was separated from Buk-gu, his father’s local district, in 1995. Rep. Jang, who is considered the original ‘Yoon Haek-gwan’ (a key official of President Yoon Seok-yeol), has drawn a line against the ‘Inyohan Innovation Committee’s’ request not to run for pro-Yoon or to run in a difficult district, saying, “I will not go to Seoul while prolonging my poor political career.” Last month, Rep. Jang showed off his participation in a large-scale local out-of-town organization event attended by about 4,200 people by posting on Facebook. The fact that he said, “Now I’m going to pause for a moment,” along with a photo of him visiting his father’s grave that day, can be interpreted as meaning that he will not run for office in this district. An official from Rep. Jang’s side said, “Please see (the message) as it is.” A key ruling party official told the Hankyoreh, “It appears that he has decided not to run in the general election.” Reporter Son Hyun-soo boysoo@hani.co.kr

The Ministry of Environment declared that it would change the flood control paradigm (system) by focusing on tributary and stream maintenance, including dam construction and dredging, to respond to extreme flooding that has become routine due to climate change. In some cases, environmental impact assessments were decided to be omitted so that maintenance projects could be started in a timely manner, raising concerns about environmental damage. There was criticism among experts that “this is a return to the past flood control paradigm, which was concluded to have limitations in responding to climate change.” On the 7th, the Ministry of Environment reported ‘water control paradigm shift measures’ at a meeting of ministers related to current state affairs presided over by Prime Minister Han Deok-soo. The Ministry of Environment announced at this event that it will actively pursue expansion of the ‘water bowl’ through the construction of new dams to respond to extreme flooding. This measure came about after the government and ruling party requested a full review of existing flood control measures after heavy rain in the central region last summer caused large-scale damage to life and property. The Ministry of Environment announced that it will first pursue the expansion of water resources through the construction of new dams to respond to extreme flooding. To this end, the basic concept and feasibility study project costs for 10 dams proposed by the region have been included in next year’s budget already submitted to the National Assembly. The Ministry of Environment plans to specify candidate sites for new dam construction and dams subject to remodeling in the ‘River Basin Water Resources Management Plan’ early next year. At a preliminary briefing on the 5th, Minister of Environment Han Hwa-jin said, “In preparation for extreme flooding, we will expand the water supply through a two-track system of national leadership and regional suggestions.” He added, “In addition to the dams suggested by the region, the Ministry of Environment will directly monitor local flooding and water shortage situations.” “We will review and build new dams of an appropriate size in areas where they are needed, and if there is suitable space, we will also pursue large dams,” he said. The Ministry of Environment’s decision to build a new dam is a direct reversal of the dam policy established during the previous administration. In September 2018, the Ministry of Environment at the time said, “We are shifting the paradigm of dam policy from construction to management,” and stopped the construction of six state-led dams, including the Imcheon Dam on the Nakdong River (reservoir capacity 170 million tons), which were included in the long-term dam construction plan at the time. It has been done. If the Ministry of Environment takes the lead in constructing new dams, it is highly likely that these dams, which have been suspended, will be reviewed first. However, an official from the Ministry of Environment said, “We will not review what we reviewed in the past, but will report on the current watershed situation.” Water resources experts believe that the construction of large-scale dams requires long-term planning and is not easy to obtain social consent, so it will not be easy to realize it during the current government’s term of office, which has about three years left. The Ministry of Environment also evaluated that river maintenance has been carried out passively so far, and announced that it would move away from the existing method of focusing on new and restoration of embankments and begin full-scale maintenance of tributaries and streams, including dredging of sediments. This plan is in response to President Yoon Seok-yeol’s special emphasis after the floods in the central region this summer that “river dredging is the number one priority for flood control.” To this end, the Ministry of Environment submitted next year’s budget to the National Assembly, which increases the river maintenance project cost by 47% (KRW 211.7 billion) from this year’s (KRW 451 billion), including dredging 1.92 million ㎥ of sediment from 19 national rivers. In addition, when the water level of the inflowing national rivers rose, it was decided to designate about 400 local river sections across the country with poor drainage as ‘drainage affected sections’ and directly repair them. The project cost to prioritize 38 of these areas has already been allocated in next year’s budget. Environmental impact assessments will also be simplified so that river maintenance can be carried out quickly. The Ministry of Environment decided to allow river maintenance projects for which environmental impact assessment items were reviewed at the stage of establishing a basic river plan to skip the environmental impact assessment. It was also decided to revise the Enforcement Decree of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act and change the river basic plan from a strategic environmental impact assessment subject to an abbreviated strategic environmental impact assessment subject. An official from the Ministry of Environment explained, “This is to allow the collection of residents’ opinions on the draft and the consultation process for the main plan to be carried out simultaneously during the strategic environmental impact assessment process.” However, it is pointed out that if an abbreviated strategic environmental impact assessment is applied to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the evaluation items, scope, and methods can be simplified, so the evaluation of the environmental impact of rivers, which are particularly ecologically important, can be simplified. In particular, concerns are raised about the omission of environmental impact assessments as there may be a time gap between the establishment of a 10-year basic river plan and the start of individual river maintenance projects, and the river environment may have changed in the process. These flood defense measures announced by the Ministry of Environment were criticized among experts in the fields of climate change, rivers, and water resources as “a return to past flood control policies.” Choi Dong-jin, director of the Climate Change Action Research Institute, said, “In the era of climate change, heavy rain is concentrated in a small area, causing damage, so we concluded that flood defenses centered on large-scale structures (such as dam construction) cannot respond. Accordingly, it has already been a long time ago. “Worldwide, the flood control paradigm has shifted to providing ‘space for flooding,’ selectively protecting it, and minimizing damage, but the Ministry of Environment’s plan is almost a return to the flood control paradigm of the 1990s,” he said. Yeom Hyeong-cheol, CEO of the Social Cooperative Han River, who served as a member of the National Water Management Committee, also said, “During recent heavy rains, casualties are usually caused by landslides or being swept away by river rapids, which cannot be prevented by dams or dredging. “It’s a regression in water management policy,” he said. Representative Yeom said, “The push for dam construction and dredging without serious review of effectiveness and feasibility looks similar to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Project.” This flood control measure is the first to be introduced since the ‘unification of water management’ was implemented by the Ministry of Environment in 2020. Park Chang-geun, president of the Korean River Studies Society (professor of civil engineering at Catholic Kwandong University), said, “The reason the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport handed over river management duties to the Ministry of Environment to unify water management was because there was a social expectation that the Ministry of Environment would ‘do a good job while also taking the environment into account.’ “To announce it is to deny the reason for one’s existence,” he said. Senior Reporter Kim Jeong-su jsk21@hani.co.kr

☞Subscribe to the Hankyoreh newsletter H:730. Type ‘Hankyoreh h730’ in the search bar. “I felt sad and frustrated when I actually saw the elderly who were pushed out of the opportunity to receive medical treatment.” Jang Yun-jeong (44, Songpa-gu, Seoul), who visited an internal medicine clinic near her home with her child who had a cold on the morning of the 25th of last month, was surprised to see an elderly person whose condition worsened while waiting for treatment and was having difficulty controlling her body. The hospital that Mr. Jang visited was a place that accepted hospital reservation applications such as ‘Dokdak’ and on-site registration at the same time. The elderly man arrived at the hospital before 10 a.m., but because he applied on-site, he could not receive treatment until around 1 p.m. . As flu and pneumonia become prevalent, people are flocking to hospitals such as pediatric departments and internal medicine departments, and patients are complaining that it is difficult to receive treatment without paid hospital reservation apps such as ‘Dokdak’. It is pointed out that the right to receive medical treatment may be violated for vulnerable groups who have difficulty accessing paid services or digitally excluded groups such as the elderly. The government’s position is that there is a possibility of violating medical law (refusal of treatment) if reservations are accepted only through paid apps. Launched in 2017, Dokdoc is a service that allows you to make medical appointments through an app. Dokdoc is the only one that provides this service in conjunction with the medical institution system. It has a cumulative number of subscribers of 10 million and is affiliated with over 10,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide. Mr. Hong (30), who lives in Deokyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, came down with the flu on the 2nd and called two otolaryngology clinics near his home. However, after being told that it would be difficult to get treatment or that he would have to wait a long time if he did not make a reservation through a paid hospital reservation app, he drove to Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul. I rode out and finally received medical treatment. Mr. Hong said, “I urgently went to the hospital because I had a severe fever, but she said it would be difficult to get treatment unless I made a reservation in advance through the app, so I was at a loss.” In particular, for parents raising children, reservations through apps have become essential as competition for pediatric care becomes fiercer. Kim Jeong-deok (44, Guro-gu, Seoul), who is raising a 9-year-old child, also said that he installed a hospital reservation app for the first time in March of this year because of his child’s hospital visit. Mr. Kim said, “When you call the hospital, the first thing they ask is, ‘Did you have a knock?’ “I had no choice but to install the app because they said I couldn’t make a reservation without it,” he said. “Now, if you want to go to the hospital, you have to go into the app as soon as 8 a.m. and make a reservation, just like ‘ticketing.’” As some hospitals are making it impossible to provide treatment without using a paid app, there are concerns that the ‘right to receive treatment if you are sick’ may be violated. Jin Jin, policy director of the Coalition of Health and Medical Organizations for the Realization of the Right to Health, said, “Currently, it is 1,000 won per month, but if a monopoly structure is formed in the future, the price may be raised and a gap in access to medical care may be created.” There are cases where elderly people who are not used to using the app just look at the ‘reservations’ that came later than them without understanding the meaning. Mr. Hong said, “My mother, who is in her 60s, was unable to make an appointment through her app, so she had to wait two hours to receive her treatment.” Professor Soon-Dul Jeong of Ewha Womans University (Department of Social Welfare) said, “This could result in discrimination against elderly people who find it difficult to use the app,” and added, “Instead of receiving medical appointments through the app alone, we should also allow face-to-face applications, and there will be no discrimination between the two methods.” “It shouldn’t exist,” he said. An official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, “If a hospital requires only a certain method to be used to make a reservation, it may amount to refusal of treatment,” and added, “We have sent an official letter to each local government asking them to monitor and supervise the use of various reception methods in parallel.” Dtokdak explained that it does not give priority like the ‘fast track’ at amusement parks, but is only a service that replaces ‘standing in line’. In a phone call with the Hankyoreh, a Ddokdak official said, “We are informing hospitals to use both on-site and mobile applications,” and added, “We are charging a fee to operate the service for a long time due to billions of won in deficit per year.” “There are no plans to increase prices in the future.” Reporter Go Byeong-chan kick@hani.co.kr Reporter Go Gyeong-ju goh@hani.co.kr

☞Subscribe to the Hankyoreh newsletter H:730. Type ‘Hankyoreh h730’ in the search bar. As a result of a thorough survey of victims in the Gangseo area of ​​Seoul, where large-scale lease fraud occurred, more than half of them had to cry and buy the damaged houses, and in the process, they suffered double and triple financial difficulties due to difficult loan support, auction delays, and excessive litigation expenses. It was found that Although it has been five months since the Jeonse Fraud Victims Act came into effect, there are many people who are being forced into high-interest loans due to blind spots. According to the Gangseo-gu Office’s ‘Results of a Survey on Victims of Jeonse Fraud’ obtained by the Hankyoreh on the 3rd, more than half of the victims who did not receive their deposit back were choosing to ‘purchase the damaged house’ to minimize damage. This is more than half of the respondents (320 people), or 64.1% (205 people). This is because the Jeonse Fraud Victims Act ‘recommends’ this method by providing preferential purchase rights or providing purchase loan support. However, even in the process of purchasing damaged houses through auction, many difficulties had to be encountered due to institutional loopholes. Auction participants must pay 10% of the minimum selling price as a bidding deposit. Most of the victims had already exceeded their total Debt Service Ratio (DSR) due to the lease loan, so many of them had secured the bid deposit through high-interest credit loans. The problem is that due to the lease fraud, there are a lot of auction items in the court, so it takes more than a year from bidding to winning the bid. During this period, the interest burden falls entirely on the victim. Mr. Baek (41) said, “It has been almost two years since the auction took place. He has been living in pain for a long time. “Please handle it quickly.” Even if the auction was held, there were many cases where low-interest loan support was not available due to income conditions. Mr. Kim (35) won the bid for the damaged house, but was unable to receive loan support, so the interest burden was greater than when borrowing money for a lease. He said, “All victims of lease fraud are the same, so why do you consider income standards?” He added, “(The houses that were purchased as victims) are not sold, so they are unable to repay the (high-interest) loans. “I wanted to die because of the hellish officetel, but I feel like I’m still in hell,” he said. Even if the bid is successful, problems remain. In the case of officetel victims, the acquisition tax amounts to 4.6%. It is more than 4 times the rate of general housing, which is 1.1%. All costs must be borne by the victim. Some of the damaged houses have been illegally converted into houses from neighborhood living facilities or have illegal structures such as balcony extensions, which may make it difficult to resell them later. It is difficult to find a tenant, so you could be stuck in this house forever. Ms. Jeong, 32, tried to move her child to another home as she grew up, but she was unable to do so. He, who bought the damaged house, said, “I was deceived by a broker and entered into a lease in an illegal building. “I bought it, but since it is an illegal building, I cannot get a lease loan, so it is difficult to find a tenant,” he said. “I am permanently stranded in this house.” “It’s so hard because everything has come to nothing,” he said. Victims of Yu House are another blind spot. Since they cannot get a low-interest loan, they cannot buy the damaged house, and since they cannot get the rental deposit back, they cannot return the deposit to the existing tenant of their house, so they cannot live in their own house. Various litigation costs were also a burden. The government announced that it was supporting one-stop services such as legal consultation and auction agency, but voices on the ground differed. One victim responded, “Because I have no expertise in the field, such as auction procedures, they did not provide specific procedures, and they provided information commonly found on the Internet, which was not of much help. I also did not know the details of the Jeonse Fraud Victims Act.” . As a result of the survey, victims were found to be spending an average of 1,612,000 won on litigation costs, including stamp and delivery fees, and an average of 3,793,000 won on attorney hiring fees. Gangseo-gu Office said, “Because they are victims with preferential purchase rights, there is a need to simplify the auction process,” and added, “The report also included a recommendation that income or property standards be excluded from the loan support requirements.” This survey was conducted over a two-week period from the 16th to the 30th of last month targeting 550 people who had applied for review to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s Jeonse Fraud Victim Support Committee among the victims of lease fraud in Gangseo-gu, and 355 people responded. Among the respondents, 320 were recognized as victims. 71.9% of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, and 80.9% of the respondents had a deposit between 100 million and 300 million won. The average legal cost due to lease fraud was 5.4 million won. It was found that 80% of respondents were experiencing physical and psychological pain, including sleep disorders, and 20.9% of victims were experiencing suicidal thoughts. Reporter Kim Ga-yoon gayoon@hani.co.kr