Ahn Cheol-soo: 'Yongsan Park is not vacant land' — why are Democratic Party lawmakers silent?

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo on Thursday criticized Democratic Party lawmakers who had previously opposed public rental housing but have stayed silent over the government's plan to build rental units inside Yongsan Park, saying the site "is not vacant land."

In a Facebook post Thursday, Ahn said Yongsan Park "is neither an emergency housing reserve for Lee Jae Myung nor an outlet for the Democratic Party's aversion to rental housing." He added that the Roh Moo-hyun administration had promised to "return the green space to the people" and even enacted special legislation to that end, yet the Lee Jae Myung government now seeks to build a large-scale public rental housing complex on the site.

Ahn said public housing construction within Seoul is necessary, but added that using Yongsan Park as a site for such development "is not appropriate."

"Using the very center of the nation's capital — a national park — as a supply site for public rental housing is an incompetent and lazy approach," he said. He asked why Democratic Party lawmakers who had unanimously opposed public rental housing projects in the greater Seoul area under the Moon Jae-in administration are now staying silent.

Ahn went on to cite past statements by prominent Democratic Party figures. He named former party leader Jung Chung-rae, who had objected to more rental housing in his district by saying rental units already accounted for 47 percent of the area's housing; former National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and current Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment Kim Sung-hwan, who had called the development of Taereung Golf Course "reckless overdevelopment and a great disappointment"; and lawmaker Lee So-young, who had taken to the streets arguing that the Gwacheon government complex was "the lifeblood of Gwacheon." "Back then they championed green space and the will of residents — why are they silent on Yongsan Park?" Ahn said.

He then asked whether it was the Democratic Party's housing policy under Lee Jae Myung to block public rental housing in their own districts by invoking overdevelopment concerns, while pushing to fill Yongsan with rental units even at the cost of demolishing a national park. "If they are truly worried about supply, I urge newly elected party leader Kim Min-seok, the supreme council members, and Democratic Party lawmakers from Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to take the lead in building public and rental housing in their own districts," he said.

"Shouldn't they lend a hand to the Lee Jae Myung government, which has spent months searching for land and is now trying to destroy a perfectly good national park because it cannot find a supply site?" Ahn said.