Employees of a state housing development corporation at the center of an unfolding land speculation scandal were summoned by police Friday for questioning about their suspected illegalities in land purchases.

A special investigation team of the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency called in employees of the state-run Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH), who are accused of using insider information to buy farmland in districts southwest of Seoul ahead of their designation by the government as candidate sites for new town development.

The summons came 17 days after the civic groups People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Lawyers for a Democratic Society accused 14 LH employees of purchasing land in Gwangmyeong and Siheung, Gyeonggi Province cities just southwest of Seoul, based on insider information. On March 11, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced that a government inquiry uncovered seven more LH employees suspected of being involved in the illicit land purchases.

According to informed officials, 15 incumbent and former LH officials are currently under police investigation as suspects in the illicit land speculation case.

The number of LH employees summoned Friday by the Gyeonggi police agency in Suwon, south of Seoul, is yet to be known, and the questioning began at around 10 a.m., they said.

Those grilled on the day reportedly include an LH official surnamed Kang, who is said to have purchased the most land in the Gwangmyeong and Siheung areas among the 15 suspects.

Kang, who is in charge of land compensation affairs related to new town development, allegedly owns several lots of land in the two cities, including 526 square meters of rice paddies and 5,905 square meters of farm fields.

Notably, he allegedly planted willow trees on his newly purchased farm fields in a bid to maximize his land compensation from LH. Kang is also accused of teaming up with other LH employees to jointly buy other plots of land in the two cities.

The police investigation team has conducted two rounds of raids on the LH headquarters in Jinju, southeastern South Korea, in connection with the land speculation scandal.

The alleged land speculation by public sector employees has rocked the nation as it emerged at a time when public discontent over soaring home prices is running high. (Yonhap)