Moon orders review into four-river project

SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday ordered a review of a four-river refurbishment project, which had been completed under the Lee Myung-bak government.

Kim Su-hyun, Moon's senior secretary for social affairs, told a news conference that Moon ordered an inspection of the decision-making and implementation processes surrounding the project.

Moon instructed the release of six dammed pools among the combined 16 beginning on June 1 to mitigate green tides ahead of the summer season.

The project was announced in June 2009, just six months after former president Lee Myung-bak won an election. Lee had offered the project as one of his core presidential pledges.

Nearly $20 billion was spent to prevent repeated flood and droughts and secure quality water by building 16 weirs, dredging riverbed sand and gravel and widening water channels.

It was the country's single-largest construction project, but environmental activists and experts strongly blamed it for deteriorating water quality and triggering green tides that hurt the ecosystem for aquatic plant and animal.

To finish the project before the end of Lee's five-year term, the construction was hurriedly made during a shorter period than expected.

In 2015, an antitrust watchdog conducted a massive investigation into the project and charged 11 construction firms with collusion and price-fixing. The firms were fined a total of $108 million.

Corresponding measures

Kim, Moon's senior social affairs secretary, told reporters that the inspection was not aimed to find out any wrongdoings of individuals, but to determine any illegality in the decision-making and implementation processes.

However, he said that if any clear illegality or wrongdoing is found from the inspection, corresponding measures will be inevitably taken.

Meanwhile, a local poll showed on Monday that Moon's first approval rating since his inauguration earlier this month topped 80 percent. According to a Realmeter survey, he gained 81.6 percent in support scores. Negative assessment of him was 10.1 percent, while 8.3 percent refrained from replying.

It was based on a poll of 2,526 voters conducted from Monday to Friday last week.

Moon's approval scores were much higher than his predecessor Park Geun-hye's 54.8 percent. Park's predecessor Lee logged 76.0 percent in the first survey results.

Xinhua