Chong Won-o, the Seongdong District chief from the Democratic Party of Korea who recently expressed an intention to run for Seoul mayor, claimed that he led the negotiations for the transfer of the factory from the former Sampyo Remicon site.
This was a rebuttal to Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's claim that "because of District Chief Chong, development of the Sampyo Remicon factory site and the Seongsu strategic maintenance zone was delayed by 10 years."
On the 11th in the afternoon at the Seoul Bar Association hall in Seocho District, during a talk on the book "Seongsu-dong" hosted by the Korea In-house Counsel Association, District Chief Chong, responding to a question about criticism that development of the Sampyo Remicon site was not advanced more quickly, said it was "a core task that has been pursued consistently since the beginning of the term."
District Chief Chong said, "Starting with the 2015 incident of Sampyo Remicon's unauthorized discharge of wastewater, we (Seongdong District) began to move the Seoul city government, and in 2016 the city formalized the transfer of Sampyo Remicon."
Chong explained, "For about a year and a half from then, the city of Seoul, Sampyo, and Seongdong District continued negotiations on the transfer of the ready-mix concrete factory, and in 2017 the transfer agreement was formalized." Chong added, "Around 2020, the city of Seoul, Seongdong District, and Sampyo finalized an agreement, applied for a decision to change urban planning, and the confirmation was completed, but while the procedures were underway, the contingency involving former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon occurred."
Chong continued, "Oh Se-hoon entered through a by-election in 2021, and in less than a year, in March 2022, the factory held a demolition ceremony. In the meantime, the site changed."
On the 3rd, Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the Sampyo Remicon site and argued that "development was delayed because District Chief Chong did not use the prior consultation system." At the time, Oh said, "When I returned through the by-election, what the former mayor and District Chief Chong had done over six years was only to obtain signatures stating 'we will remove the ready-mix concrete factory and build a park.' In that state, I received the handover and began prior consultations, and in two years we removed the factory."
District Chief Chong drew attention as the Democratic Party's next Seoul mayoral candidate after President Lee Jae-myung noted on X (formerly Twitter) that Chong "does a good job," and recently made his run official.