[summerlight]

> Governments issue bonds for what turn out to be bad investments all the time.

Yeah, and this is even worse since Gangwon-do is an extremely rural and aging area without any hope of future growth. It only contributes 2% of the total GDP in South Korea and is rapidly shrinking. No sane private entity would go there without government supports since none of significant development there would make financial feasibility. It's where a government is supposed to intervene.

The current governor (who was a prosecutor like Yoon anyway) seems to consider this as a really good chance to put their political opponents into jail and they need to access confidential information to make the case. The default is a necessary part for the grand scheme and he probably was willing to make that sacrifice. He was just not competent enough to understand its implication.