Land minister, Seoul mayor clash over Yongsan Park housing plan

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met Thursday to discuss housing supply options within the Yongsan Park site but failed to narrow their differences. The government proposed limited housing on already-degraded sections of the park and said it would pursue a public deliberation process, while Seoul reaffirmed that it cannot accept any conversion of the park's core site to residential use.

Kim spoke to reporters after the morning meeting near Seoul City Hall, saying the two sides had cleared up some misunderstandings but confirmed that their positions remain apart. "We agreed to meet again next week," he said.

"The core issue is whether to change the law to allow housing supply for young people, newlyweds and multi-child families within Yongsan Park," Kim said. "Mayor Oh is opposed to that in principle."

Kim declined to identify the specific sites the government is considering, saying naming them could cause misunderstandings. "Just as with the greenbelt, the idea is to limit supply to areas within Yongsan Park that have already been degraded, and to direct that housing toward young people and newlyweds where possible," he said.

The government also said it intends to hold a public deliberation process on the use of Yongsan Park. "I fully agree with the overarching principle that Yongsan Park must be preserved," Kim said. "We can go through a deliberative process — holding forums or forming a public deliberation committee — and the specific target sites will naturally come up for discussion during that process."

The two sides also failed to resolve their disagreement over the scale of housing supply at the Yongsan International Business District. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has called for 10,000 units while Seoul has argued for a maximum of 8,000. "We discussed the issues but nothing has changed," Kim said. "We will meet again next week to reach a final resolution."

On a proposal by Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers from Seoul to channel about 20 trillion won ($14.3 billion) in additional tax revenue into youth housing support, Kim said additional fiscal investment "should of course be considered." He added that the government would hold a youth forum next week to gather opinions and continue the discussion.

Oh, for his part, held a briefing at Seoul City Hall immediately after the meeting and said the city would not yield an inch on the core Yongsan Park site. "On Thursday, I can say the Yongsan Park issue was a parallel-lines conversation," he said. "I made clear in the strongest terms that Seoul cannot agree under any circumstances to building apartments on the core Yongsan Park site."

"Yongsan Park is a space for the quality of life and leisure of Seoul citizens, and the key link in the green corridor running from Namsan to the Han River," Oh said. "I told the minister that agreeing to convert even part of the core site to residential use would make me a sinner against history as Seoul mayor."

Oh did offer a compromise, saying the city could discuss using sites near but outside Yongsan Park. "I made a counter-proposal that the scattered sites around Yongsan could be discussed more flexibly," he said, citing areas near Gyeongidan, Camp Kim and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs parking lot as examples. "Those could be considered as housing supply candidates, but only if infrastructure conditions — including transportation, water and sewage — are met," he added.

Oh also said he confirmed that the government has not yet decided which specific sections of Yongsan Park it would use for housing. "I asked which areas outside the core site were being considered, but the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had no finalized position," he said. "Various locations come to mind — officers' quarters, military apartment buildings, the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration site, the children's garden — but it is difficult for Seoul to state a position on each when the government has not identified a target site."

Oh rebuffed the government's argument that housing could be built on sections of the park that have "already been degraded." "The former DAPA site, the military apartments and the rest are all part of the core Yongsan Park site — land that has been promised to become parkland," he said.

"The intent of the Special Act on Yongsan Park is not just to protect areas where forests already exist, but to turn even the land that still has buildings and paved surfaces from its former use as a military base into green space like Seoul Forest," Oh said. "I made clear that the logic of allowing housing because an area has already been degraded does not hold."

The two sides plan to meet again next week for further discussions on housing supply at both Yongsan Park and the Yongsan International Business District.