Additional finds confirmed beyond the 388 pieces officially acknowledged by Chuncheon; civic group says complaint was not forwarded to Cultural Heritage Administration
A string of puzzling actions by public officials has followed the discovery of hundreds of artifacts at the site designated for Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province's new headquarters. Some have raised allegations that a large-scale cartel has formed around the construction of the new provincial office building.
Amid those concerns, more artifacts have been found at the Goeun-ri site in Chuncheon. Additional discovery reports have been filed for the same project site where Chuncheon had officially confirmed 388 artifacts.
The civic group Jungdo Bonbu said Tuesday that artifacts have continued to surface at the Gangwon Province new headquarters construction site even after the 388 pieces were collected.
As a result, the construction suspension order issued by Chuncheon remains in effect. Should work proceed, the implementing authority, any agency that permitted it and the contractor could all face criminal charges.
Jungdo Bonbu said it submitted a discovery complaint to Chuncheon through the national public petition portal on Oct. 1, but that as of Tuesday the city had not designated or forwarded the complaint to the Cultural Heritage Administration as a multi-agency matter.
According to Jungdo Bonbu, the group discovered 97 artifacts at the construction site on Sept. 1 and reported them to Chuncheon and the Cultural Heritage Administration the following day.
More artifacts were found in the days that followed, bringing the total confirmed and reported between Sept. 1 and Sept. 13 to 165 pieces.
Gangwon Province collected a total of 388 artifacts from the project site on Sept. 15. Jungdo Bonbu said it found additional artifacts at the site on Sept. 27, after that collection had taken place.
On that occasion, the group re-confirmed three previously identified artifacts and found seven new ones.
Jungdo Bonbu compiled the additional findings and on Oct. 1 submitted a discovery complaint to Chuncheon through the national public petition portal, also requesting that the matter be designated a multi-agency complaint so the relevant information could be forwarded to the Cultural Heritage Administration.
Chuncheon did not forward the additional discovery complaint to the Cultural Heritage Administration. On Oct. 5, Jungdo Bonbu asked the city to investigate why it had failed to honor its commitment to designate the complaint as a multi-agency matter.
Jungdo Bonbu said that as of Tuesday, Chuncheon had still not designated or forwarded the complaint to the Cultural Heritage Administration as a multi-agency matter.
The group particularly noted that some zones where additional artifacts were found include areas around Trenches 46 and 48, which are understood to have not undergone detailed excavation surveys in previous investigations.
Jungdo Bonbu said Chuncheon must not treat the discovery complaint as a routine administrative matter or delay forwarding it to the relevant authorities. Properly verifying issues related to the discovery and preservation of buried cultural heritage requires not only review by the local government but also expert examination and an on-site inspection by the Cultural Heritage Administration, the group said.
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