The Story of a Man Standing in the Center of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway

This includes an interview with Choi Jae-gwan, a former secretary to the President who gained national attention by persistently protesting in a tent in front of the Yangpyeong County Office as the terminus of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway changed.
On the night of October 25, 2023, the 109th day of the sit-in protest over the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway controversy, several journalists visited us and asked us gentle but sharp questions about the controversy, the current reality of our agriculture and rural areas, ways to prevent their decline, alternatives for regional extinction and balanced regional development, and opportunities for rural areas amid the climate crisis.
It consists of various questions and answers that go on and on, from what I am doing now to what I have done since returning to farming and what I plan to do in the future.
This book is a story of hope, recorded as it was, of the conversations we had that day, and a story about the 'path of Choi Jae-gwan' that Choi Jae-gwan wishes to follow.

On the night of October 25th, the 109th day of the sit-in, several journalists came to visit.
They asked me a variety of questions, from what I was doing now to my past and future plans.
Questions that are gentle but sharp and follow one another… .
This book is a true account of the conversation we had that day.
I cannot reveal their names, but I would like to express my gratitude to the journalists who asked me sharp and insightful questions that night.

--- p.8

At first, we set up a tent in front of Yangpyeong County Office and started a hunger strike.
After finishing the fast for about 9 days, we continued the relay fast for about a month.
We are focusing not only on the withdrawal of the highway project, but also on what we learned in the process: that this is a clear suspicion of state corruption.
Even if we just summarize the facts that have been revealed so far, it is concluded that there is no reasonable explanation for this unless the president used his power to force the highway terminus towards his wife's family.
Now, after deciding to continue the sit-in protest until the truth is revealed, the protest group has changed its name and is continuing the protest demanding a state investigation and special prosecution to uncover the truth about the suspicions surrounding the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway.

--- p.11

I did a little farming, but farming didn't suit my constitution and I wasn't interested in it. I was mainly interested in the farmers' movement, so my wife looked for something that could generate income while raising the children.
For example, I went to work at a local newspaper where I could bring my child to work, take care of my child, and earn money. I think I was doing well with my wife's help that way.

--- p.39

Discussions on opening the rice market began in earnest in 2002 and reached a point of complete opening in 2004.
But 2002 was the year of the presidential election.
We must protect rice, and I thought about how we can protect rice.
I thought that if we gathered 300,000 farmers, invited the presidential candidates there, and showed our will to vote for the candidate who would protect rice, wouldn't that power be enough to stop the opening of the rice market?

--- p.62

Rice is a matter of life and death for our farmers.
Farmers also go on a lot of tours, and they charter a bus from one village to go on tours, so I thought, why can't they charter a bus to go to the rally against the opening of the rice market?
So, if we take one bus to each village, how many people can go? I calculated that one bus could take about 40 people.
I thought it would be possible to organize 10,000 buses with 40 people per bus, so I proposed it to farmers' associations across the country through PC communication (Internet).
"Would it be difficult to transport one bus to each village? Tourists go there, but wouldn't it be impossible to transport one bus to each village to protect rice, a vital commodity? It's possible."

--- p.63

What surprised me then was that when our farmers pleaded with us to stop the opening of the rice market, threatening to die, the people did not take to the streets.
But when mad cow disease beef came in and middle school students and children had to eat it, I thought to myself as I watched parents and middle school students take to the streets and form a line of one million people.
‘Oh, protecting our agriculture is not something that can be done with the power of farmers alone. Now, it will be impossible if the consumers who consume food do not take the initiative and stop it…’

--- p.84

A new era has begun for school meals.
Actually, before, even though it was difficult to produce eco-friendly agricultural products, the government said they would buy them if they were farmed eco-friendly, but in reality, there were no sales channels, so it was really difficult.
Even if you worked hard to produce produce, it was not worth as much as regular agricultural products when sold in the market. However, with the opening of the "school lunch" market, a groundbreaking opportunity opened up for eco-friendly agriculture in our country, and our farmers' movement was able to expand its horizons by breaking away from the existing framework and becoming a movement that works with consumers.

--- p.89

yes.
So we continued to fight with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
After two to three years of continuous fighting, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety forces a lowering of the standards.
So I protested again.
At that time, the US lowered the arsenic intake standards for infants and toddlers by half.
The standards have been strengthened with the health of infants and young children in mind.
While presenting this fact, they continued to raise the issue by saying, "It doesn't make sense for us to follow the past American standards and relax them while the US is changing things like this," and eventually, in our country, we settled on adjusting the standards for infants and toddlers to the same level as the US.

--- p.95

Candidate Park Geun-hye's pledge was to raise the price of rice from 170,000 won to 210,000 won.
The pledge was for 210,000 won, but by the end of the Park Geun-hye administration, the price of rice had fallen to 127,000 won.
The president himself promised to raise the price of rice from 170,000 won to 210,000 won, but it has fallen every year from 170,000 won to 160,000 won, 150,000 won, 140,000 won, and 120,000 won.
So, the first thing I did when I entered the Moon Jae-in administration's Blue House was to normalize rice prices. In fact, normalizing rice prices is not complicated.
It's simple.

--- p.102

If I were to ask what is most important to farmers' livelihoods after being involved in the farmers' movement for a long time, I would say it is money, income.
No matter what anyone says, it's income.
Because, that has to happen first before the rest of the innovative investments, innovative changes, people living in rural areas, and investments in agriculture can take place. If that doesn't happen, rural development will inevitably be restricted and distorted.
I still believe that school and public meals will create new markets and alternatives for rural areas, but the limitation of such businesses is that while those who participate in the system see their incomes increase, it's difficult for all farmers to participate in the system.
We had to think about how to guarantee the income of many other farmers and rural residents.
The way to prevent the decline of rural populations and the decline of rural areas is limited by agricultural production alone, and there are also limitations to public food service methods such as school lunches.
Ultimately, I believed that renewable energy could be the new way to revitalize rural areas, leading to new sources of income, investment, and innovation. That's why I've been focusing on renewable energy.

--- p.145

'Hey, this is suspicious,' so I requested all the relevant information from the county office.
After looking at the data, from that point on, situations that were not funny began to unfold.
What initially made me think, 'This is absolutely ridiculous,' was the response I got from the county office when I asked them who initially proposed and changed the route, and when the route change was first proposed.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport asked Yangpyeong County Office for opinions on the route in July 2022, and the county office proposed three routes, which was the first time the route was changed.

--- p.161

I think that unless the higher-ups are at least the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, or even higher, who would dare to order the deletion of that content?
We are.
And from the perspective of a contractor, how could they change the course of a project worth 1.8 to 2 trillion won just by visiting the site once? That would mean significantly more work for them, and they'd volunteer for work they weren't even asked to do? I think that's impossible.
This is by the person who gave them the instructions, so if we just find the person who gave those instructions and the person who carried out the deletion, the culprit will be revealed.

--- p.182

Yes, that's right.
Rather, he was promoted and became the person in charge of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway project, and in the recording with the official in charge, it appears that he proposed and created three routes.
Draw three routes by making subtle suggestions like, 'How about doing it this way?'
It is recorded in the transcript that he played that role.
Because it contained such important information, we released it to the media, but the Yangpyeong County Council, where the People Power Party holds the majority, took issue with it, claiming it was defamation.
If this happens, civil servants will be anxious and will not be able to talk or work, so they argue that recording between the parties is not illegal.
It is not illegal at all, and since the media exposure was for the public interest, it is not illegal, but the military council disciplined him and expelled him, saying that it was damaging the dignity of the member.
The People Power Party lawmakers have abused the tyranny of the majority party.

--- p.191

So, what has recently come to light is the suspicion related to the Namyangpyeong IC.
The Namyangpyeong IC is located just 500 meters away from the final destination where Mrs. Kim Gun-hee's land is located.
The road construction company is spending about 22.9 billion won to build a rest area at the Namyangpyeong IC, and it is about 85% complete.
There are two types of rest areas in our country.
One is 100% operated by the road construction company, and the other is 100% privately funded… .
There are only these two types.
About 90% of the rest areas that currently exist are directly operated by the Korea Expressway Corporation, and only the remaining 10% or so are privately owned.

--- p.194

The Yeoju-Yangpyeong area is beautiful because of the river, but it is subject to many regulations because of the river.
But in reality, those who run for office always promise to ease regulations, but most of them end up being empty promises.
This is because there is a conflict of interest with residents of the metropolitan area who use the Paldang water source.
As a result, reckless development takes place in various forms, avoiding the development here and there.
In particular, in the case of Yangpyeong, our former Assemblyman Kim Seon-gyo issued many permits when he was the county governor.
That's why the citizens like it.
I think it will be profitable once it is developed anyway.
So, let's take a look at the results after three terms as governor. Yangpyeong's traffic is a mess.

--- p.213

Looking at the controversial Daejang-dong development, it generated a profit of about 1 trillion won, but only 500 billion won was recovered.
Of course, the prosecution is investigating why the remaining 500 billion won was not recovered, but public development is development that can use a lot of the profits for the public interest.
I believe that going forward, we need to build more rental housing through public development and create spaces where young people can live.
In addition, I believe that we need to invest in transportation infrastructure to reduce infrastructure costs through planned public development and share the remaining profits with everyone, creating a city where people can commute to Seoul in 15 to 20 minutes via GTX.

--- p.219

If you say you're doing the right thing to reform society, they'll tell you to stop, saying, "That's like throwing eggs at a rock."
I didn't hesitate to break a rock with an egg.
They said it was impossible to protect our rice, but I didn't stop.
In the run-up to the 1992 presidential election, the issue of opening up rice imports became a major social issue.
During my college years, as an agricultural student, I led 30 people on an eight-day hunger strike at Myeongdong Cathedral to protest the opening of the rice market.
While starving for the siege, I realized that the most important thing in the world is food.
And I decided, 'Let's farm! Let's dedicate my life to protecting rice!' and returned to farming in Yeoju.
My parents sighed and asked, "After sending me to Seoul National University, are you going to farm?"
He said that if you farm for a year, you won't even earn enough to cover a worker's monthly salary.
When I told him that he could make a living by growing rice, he said that even dogs eat rice.
At that time, blocking the opening of rice imports was like throwing an egg at a rock.

--- p.240

At the call of President Moon Jae-in, I entered the Blue House as the Secretary for Agriculture.
At the first meal I had with the President, I offered him military rations.
The idea is to create a system where soldiers can contract-produce domestic agricultural products, similar to school lunches.
We talked about the benefits of school lunches and the president even asked us to try it, which created an opportunity to switch military lunches to domestic products.
We have also changed the system so that all government public institution meals are made with domestic products.

I also wondered if there was a way to prevent the chronic price crash, which is the biggest problem with agricultural products.
Farmers will not plant a crop next year if the price of that crop plummets this year.
If you don't plant it next year, the crop will boom again, and when it booms, everyone will plant it again.
Then it crashes again and repeats itself.
If we could computerize the national crop and producer inventory to know who planted what crop and how much, we could prevent oversupplies and crashes.

Just as a car's navigation system can help you avoid congested areas by alerting you to them, we have instructed and created a computerized system for agricultural products to help you prevent oversupply.
It's in full swing right now.
And while I was in the Blue House, I created a domestic wheat cultivation law and a public direct payment system.
The Park Geun-hye administration normalized the price of rice, which had plummeted.
I am not afraid of new attempts and new paths.

--- p.244

I ran in the 2020 general election and lost.
For the past four years, I have served as the regional committee chairman for Yeoju and Yangpyeong, and have been steadfastly protecting the region.
In particular, various corruption scandals involving the Choi Eun-sun family in Yangpyeong have been revealed, and we have been fighting endlessly.
He was the person who staged the most one-person protests regarding the corruption in the development of apartments in the Yangpyeong Gongheung District during the last presidential election.


And now, the president's wife is at the center of corruption related to the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway.
When Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong declared a blank slate and took on the role of a daily lecturer, we quickly responded by fact-checking the lies and truths in a video and informed the public.
And we continue to hold press conferences almost once a week.
At the candlelight vigil, he even proposed a one-on-one debate with Minister Won Hee-ryong, with his position at stake.
There is no answer yet.
We started a tent protest at Yangpyeong County Office and have been doing so for 157 days.
It starts in midsummer, goes through fall, and continues into winter.

However, I have no intention of closing down my tent protest site until the truth is revealed.
I am a person who fights persistently until the end.
There are three major corruption scandals in Yangpyeong, including the power-type gate.
Let's take a look at the three major power-type corruption scandals: "Mother-in-law's Apartment," "In-law's Highway," and "Dongmun Rest Stop."

--- p.246