Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met, but failed to find common ground on core issues such as supplying dwellings inside Yongsan Park, and agreed to continue talks next week.
Minister Kim met Mayor Oh for about an hour on the morning of Aug. 20 at Dalgaebi in Jung-gu, Seoul. This was the first official meeting since the government announced its Aug. 13 dwellings supply plan. In a post-briefing held at Sangyeonjae, a nearby meeting space, Minister Kim said, "I exchanged many views with Mayor Oh," adding, "There may have been misunderstandings, and many of them seem to have been resolved, but we still confirmed differences in our respective positions." He added, "Because we cannot wrap up this conversation in a single day, we will each take a step back to reflect and then meet next week to continue the dialogue."
The biggest sticking point of the meeting was a plan to supply dwellings by using part of the Yongsan Park site. Minister Kim actively addressed some controversy, explaining that the stance is not to develop the entire park but to supply a limited number of dwellings for young people and newlyweds, focusing on sites such as officers' housing, military apartments, and the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration site that have already been damaged or have lost their green-space function.
Minister Kim emphasized, "Protecting Yongsan Park well and supplying dwellings for young people and newlyweds are not mutually exclusive." Kim said, "Mayor Oh takes a position of principled opposition, and from a mayor's standpoint, accepting the idea of damaging a park to build homes is not easy," adding, "Today's meeting was a process to confirm the exact positions of both sides."
Minister Kim also said, "I strongly agree with the overarching principle that the Yongsan Park site should be preserved and protected," adding, "We will reflect this and go through a public deliberation process." Kim added, "The format of public deliberation could be a forum, or we could create a public deliberation committee."
The meeting also discussed easing related regulations, including relaxing floor area ratio limits for private-sector redevelopment and reconstruction, as requested by Mayor Oh. Minister Kim said, "We agreed to proactively review the private-sector floor area ratio issue from our respective positions," adding, "Frankly, there is concern that this could raise real estate prices, but we also agreed that, if possible, we should give a hopeful message to our people, to Seoul residents, and to young newlyweds."
On discussions about lifting greenbelt designations, Kim said, "We did not hold specific discussions," adding, "It is not about lifting them unconditionally; we agreed to explore a plan to use, in a limited way, sites that have already been damaged, such as where vinyl greenhouses have been built." The two sides also failed to reach a final conclusion on the number of households to be supplied in the Yongsan International Business District.
Minister Kim and Mayor Oh plan an additional meeting next week, coordinating the schedule and location in consideration of the National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget & Accounts timetable. On the nature of next week's meeting, Minister Kim said, "Rather than a showdown, it will be a meeting aimed at a good conclusion in a friendly atmosphere."
Meanwhile, on the estimated expense of remediating contaminants at Yongsan Park and how to share the burden, Kim said, "There has been no detailed review," adding, "It is an issue that needs to be examined as discussions proceed." Regarding handling a special law for supplying dwellings in Yongsan Park, Kim drew a line, saying, "It is a matter for the ruling and opposition parties in the National Assembly to decide."