Conflicts arise within liberal bloc over sell off of Kim Dae-jung’s residence

A recent move by one of former President Kim Dae-jung’s sons to sell his father’s residence in a bid to avoid a “hefty inheritance tax,” has sparked a conflict among the liberal bloc here in recent days, with some calling for the main opposition or the government to repurchase the property for its historic value.

On Wednesday, several lawmakers of the main opposition liberal Democratic Party of Korea, which has repeatedly mentioned Kim’s “spirit of Democracy” in recent years as part of its identity, floated various ideas to uphold the late president’s residence located in Donggyo-dong, Seoul. The remarks followed accusations from minor liberal opposition New Future Party (Saemirae Party) against the Democratic Party on Monday for remaining silent for several days after news reports of the real estate deal broke out last week.

Rep. Jung Chung-rae, a member of the Democratic Party’s supreme council on Wednesday called for the government to repurchase the former president’s residence with taxpayers’ money to turn it into a state-owned property.

Democratic Party Rep. Park Jie-won, former chief presidential secretary to Kim Dae-jung, and who is well known as a lifetime aide to the late president, expressed willingness to spend his own money to repurchase the estate, said main opposition Rep. Kim Min-seok via Facebook on Tuesday.

Former main opposition leader and Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jae-myung, who is currently running in the party leadership race to clinch a second term, has yet to release an official statement. However, Rep. Kim Min-seok, a member of the pro-Lee faction within the party, claimed that the former main opposition leader told him that “the party must take responsibility and find ways to solve the problem,” in the same Tuesday Facebook post.

Besides main opposition lawmakers, other liberal politicians expressed regret over the late president’s 60-year-old son Kim Hong-gul’s latest decision as well.

Former Prime Minister and liberal politician Lee Nak-yon on Tuesday requested Kim Hong-gul to cancel the real estate deal, calling the late president’s residence a “great democratic legacy of South Korea.”

“The Donggyo-dong residence is a great democratic legacy of South Korea. It is a historic site where late President Kim Dae-jung endured the assassination threats of the Park Chung-hee administration followed by the death sentence and house arrest imposed by the Chun Doo-hwan administration,” the former prime minister stressed.

Kim Dae-jung first moved into the Donggyo-dong residence in 1961. Excluding some combined ten years -- including the time he spent in exile in the US and the period he lived in Cheong Wa Dae, the old presidential residency in central Seoul, as the nation's 8th president from 1998 to 2003 -- he spent most of his life as a politician and post-retirement in the Donggyo-dong house.

The residency was also where he spent his combined 183 days of house arrest imposed by both the military dictatorship regimes of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan for speaking in favor of democracy, earning it the notorious nickname of "Donggyo-dong jail." He died in 2009 due to heart failure.

Lee Nak-yon said that while the residence is legally considered a private property, it should not be viewed and handled as such due to its historic value.

Kim Hong-gul, the youngest of Kim Dae-jung's three sons, sold off the estate for some 10 billion won ($7.2 million) to a group of local businessmen, last month, according to local news reports. Kim told local news outlet JTBC that he had no choice but to sell it due to the “hefty inheritance tax” he had to pay.