By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter

Seoul City and Jung-gu District plan to build an underground garbage dump near Sungnyemun, but merchants and cultural experts oppose the idea.

Sungnyemun, one of the four main gates of the old Seoul, is also known as Namdaemun, or South Gate. It was burnt down in an arson attack last January and is currently being restored.

The dumping site is planned to be in front of Namdaemun Market, some 40 meters from the gate.

The city and district want to build the 420-square-meter dump 7 meters underground.

“This is the rational way to handle the waste coming from the big market and the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) approved it. We will build a site underground and it will go well with Sungnyemun,” a district official said.

The CHA gave the green light to the construction on the condition that an excavation and investigation is performed in advance. The administration has the right to allow construction near the national treasure.

The district has allowed construction to proceed after an investigation did not find any cultural assets or traces of fortress wall of the old Seoul.

Though the dumping ground is subterranean, the garbage chute and elevator will be located above ground.

Some still oppose the idea.

“I can’t understand how the CHA approved the construction. They should have considered moving the dumping ground to another site,” said Hwang Pyung-woo, the director of the Cultural Heritage Policy Research Institute, a private research center.

Nearby storeowners say that the city and the district changed their earlier stance of making the place a cultural landmark, and didn’t take into account their situation.

“The process is extralegal, as they did not obtain consent from interested parties,” said Son Do-won, president of a merchants’ association at Namdaemun Market. “We are considering administrative litigation to stop the construction.”

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr