Song Yong-gil touts terminal sale that rescued Incheon from fiscal crisis in bid for party leadership

Song Yong-gil, a candidate for leader of the Democratic Party of Korea ahead of the party's national convention, has highlighted his role in rescuing Incheon's finances during his tenure as mayor — pointing to a high-stakes terminal sale that he says pulled the city back from the brink of insolvency.

Kang Min-seok, a spokesperson for Song's campaign, said Tuesday that Song had shared the story of how he tackled Incheon's severe fiscal crisis when he took office as mayor in 2010. At that time, the city carried 7 trillion won ($4.9 billion) in debt and was paying 1 billion won in daily interest charges.

According to the spokesperson's office, a department store was operating as a tenant at Incheon Terminal Station — owned by Incheon Transit Corporation, a city-affiliated agency — and generating annual sales of nearly 1 trillion won, while Incheon City itself collected only about 30 billion won a year in rent. Facing urgent pressure to raise funds for debt repayment, Song decided as a last resort to sell the publicly owned leased space and began quietly pushing the deal forward.

The appraised value of the asset at the time was 825 billion won, but the existing tenant — a major retail conglomerate — sought to exploit market conditions and floated a lowball offer of around 650 billion won, well below the appraisal. Song flatly rejected the proposal, concluding that accepting such a price could expose him to breach-of-fiduciary-duty liability as the head of a local government.

Song then reached out to a rival retail conglomerate, proposing a fair open competition to block any appearance of favoritism and ensure genuine market-driven bidding. The new company, initially wary of being used as a mere foil, was persuaded by Song to participate actively in the tender.

As a result, the newly entered bidder submitted an offer matching the appraised value of 825 billion won and was selected as the buyer. The original tenant, facing the loss of a prime location in the Greater Seoul area, belatedly countered with 900 billion won and escalated the dispute into litigation. Incheon City had secured procedural legitimacy, however, and ultimately completed the sale of the terminal's department store for a final price of 920 billion won.

Through the sale, Incheon City collected 270 billion won more than the original tenant's initial offer and 100 billion won more than the first-round winning bid, securing a total of 920 billion won in revenue and fully averting the threat of insolvency.

Song's camp said the boldness and decisive negotiating skill he demonstrated in overcoming the fiscal crisis were "the result of verified leadership," adding that he would "strongly support the success of the Lee Jae Myung administration's governance based on this hands-on experience and policy capacity."