As the government is reviewing sites across Yongsan Park, including Yongsan Children's Garden, where dwellings could be supplied, Ha Jun-kyung, senior secretary for economic growth at Cheong Wa Dae, said on the 19th that "if this large park is all made into a park, it would be an enormous size rarely seen in the world," noting there could be public safety problems.
The point is that, considering concerns about incurring social expense and the low number of users, it would be better to use the park as a site for dwellings.
Appearing on TV CHOSUN that day, Ha said, "In Yongsan District, Seoul, there is land the size of Yeouido on Namsan, and also on the returned U.S. military base site (Yongsan Park)."
He added, "Looking at London in the United Kingdom, a city that has a large park in the downtown area, it is extremely difficult to manage," and said, "There are many issues such as public safety problems, which impose social expense." He then said, "We need to discuss how best to use Yongsan Park."
Ha said, "A park basically has meaning when many people use it," adding, "If you go to Yongsan Children's Garden, there are hardly any people." He continued, "Compared with Children's Grand Park, there are far fewer users," and said, "It is important to make good use of this prime piece of land."
He also argued that, regarding the issue of remediating the park, it is not cost-effective. Ha said, "Even if you want to create something like New York's Central Park, there is the issue of removing contaminants," adding, "The expense of removing contaminants ranges from at least hundreds of billions of won to the trillion-won level. It would not be easy for any government to put money in the trillions there."
Instead, he said that if Yongsan Park is used as a site for dwellings, remediation could be achieved simply by excavating the contaminated soil.
Ha said, "Building dwellings does not mean not creating parks," adding, "Parks should have good accessibility, and having them at an appropriate scale makes them much more usable." He continued, "One could think that this is the way to pass down good living spaces to descendants while at the same time passing down a good environment."