KB News Desk
Seoul needs more homes, and Yongsan Park looks like the kind of land the government would find hard to ignore.
The site is large, centrally located and largely undeveloped. But it is also a former military garrison that Seoul has spent years planning to turn into a national urban park.
Those competing priorities collided Thursday as Land Minister Kim Yoon-deok and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met over the future of the site but failed to agree on whether part of the main site should be used for housing.
About 3 square kilometers of land has been set aside for the park, with the main site coming from the now-abandoned Yongsan Garrison accounting for two-thirds of it.
The debate also revives a pledge Lee Jae-myung made during his 2022 presidential campaign to build 100,000 homes on parts of the main Yongsan Park site, primarily for younger Koreans.
Oh expressed strong resistance after Thursday’s meeting, saying he would go down in history as a “sinner” if he agreed to convert even part of the main park site into housing.
“Yongsan Park, in particular, must remain a recreational space for Seoul residents, as it forms a key part of the ‘green corridor’ connecting Namsan and the Han River,” Oh told reporters at Seoul City Hall.
“It would be difficult to consent to converting any portion of the main park site — however limited — into residential land. I made it clear that agreeing to such a plan would cause me to go down in history as a sinner in my capacity as Seoul mayor.”
Kim stood by the government’s position, saying preserving the park and supplying housing for young people and newlyweds were not necessarily incompatible.
He said the government was considering limited development on parts of the site that are already built on or altered, including former officers’ quarters, military apartment complexes and the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration site.
Kim proposed broader public discussion, potentially through public debates or a deliberative committee.
Oh rejected the distinction, saying much of the former military compound is covered with buildings, roads and concrete precisely because of its previous use, and that the goal is to turn the entire site into a park.
“Ultimately, we remain deadlocked over Yongsan Park,” Oh said.
There was, however, some room for compromise outside the main site.
Oh said Seoul would take a more flexible approach toward nearby parcels, including Camp Kim, the Gyeongnidan site and parking lots used by the Foreign Ministry and other public institutions. Seoul would also support infrastructure needed for housing on those sites.
The two sides agreed to continue discussions next week.
Once home to the main US military garrison in Seoul, the main site was slated for return under a 2003 agreement to relocate US forces to Pyeongtaek. The first sections were returned in 2020, followed by additional handovers in 2022.
About 31 percent of the former garrison has been returned so far.
Under the Yongsan Park Special Act, the main garrison site must be developed as a park and cannot be converted or sold for other purposes.
The ruling Democratic Party is now pushing to revise the law, with a parliamentary vote postponed from Thursday to next week amid opposition.
Long road to development
Some experts have urged caution over developing the site, arguing that its value lies not only in green space but also in its history.
“Yongsan Park is often compared with New York’s Central Park, but its significance extends far beyond green space,” said Ahn Chang-mo, a professor of architecture at Kyonggi University.
“It served as a strategic base for imperial Japan’s expansion across Korea and East Asia, and later came under US military control, bearing witness to the Korean War and the Cold War.”
Buildings from those periods remain, Ahn said, making preservation not simply a question of green space but also of protecting a site that reflects Korea’s experience of imperialism, war and the pursuit of peace.
Even if the political and legal hurdles are cleared, housing development would still take considerable time.
Most of the former garrison has not yet been returned, while environmental assessments and soil remediation would be required before development could begin.
“Remediation work at Camp Kim has already been underway for five years, but it is not yet complete,” Oh said Tuesday.
“Given that the transfer has not been completed, I can say with certainty that housing construction there cannot begin during the current administration,” he said.
Experts also warn that once part of the site is turned over to housing, reversing that decision would be extremely difficult.
“This vacant land at the heart of the city presents us with new possibilities,” said Yoon Seung-hyun, a professor of architecture at Chung-Ang University.
“If we rush to build housing there simply because demand is urgent, what happens afterward?”
