Fresh conflict brewing at Guryong Village

Residents vow to protest Seoul city’s redevelopment project

By Kim Rahn

Tension is mounting at Guryong Village, a poor neighborhood in affluent Gangnam, southern Seoul, as the city government’s latest redevelopment plan is reigniting two-decades-old conflicts between residents and authorities.

On Thursday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced a plan by a public builder to redevelop the area. But residents have vowed to stage an all-out protest to the scheme. More than 300 staged a sit-in rally at the Gangnam District Office for about two hours Thursday, and some of them visited City Hall to express their opposition.

“The ward office and the city government have neglected the Guryong Village redevelopment issue for about 20 years. Now they have suddenly come up with this public redevelopment plan, ignoring our own long-term vision involving private builders,” said Yu Kwi-beom, head of the residents’ self-governing body.

The village is an unauthorized cluster of shacks, which was established around 1988 when the government barred illegal housing ahead of the Seoul Olympic Games. Some 2,530 people in 1,242 households live there at present in shacks built from cardboard, vinyl and cloth.

As the village is the only remaining undeveloped area in Gangnam, speculators are paying attention to how it will be developed, while villagers who have built homes illegally on private land worry about their housing prospects.

According to the plan, SH Corp., the city’s construction arm, will build apartment complexes to accommodate a total of 2,793 households, along with schools, culture and welfare facilities, roads and parks by 2016.

The city said 1,250 homes among the 2,793 will be two types of long-term lease apartments — the 151 poorest households in the village, which receive government subsidies, can lease apartments for 3 million won ($2,800) in a guaranteed deposit and 60,000 won in monthly rent, while others can lease houses for a 60 million won deposit and 400,000 won in rent.

But Guryong villagers are against this scheme as a private builder, surnamed Jeong, who owns 70 percent of the village site, had promised to provide them with apartments.

Yu said residents came to an agreement 15 years ago that Jeong would construct about 2,500 apartments, they would live in about 1,200 of them by paying only maintenance expenses for five years, then they can own the homes if they pay the construction costs.

“At that time, the ward office and city government didn’t have any plan and ignored this village. We and Jeong made efforts to achieve the goal, demolishing empty homes to prevent speculators from obtaining them and getting assurances of new apartments,” Yu said.

He claimed most of the villagers can’t afford the 60 million won deposit and 400,000 won in rent, saying the city plan will eventually drive them away from the area. The private builder’s plan also requires them to pay more than 80 million won for construction costs, but Jeong promised them 30 years to do so, according to Yu.

But the city earlier rejected Jeong’s plan, saying it was likely to damage the environment and giving apartments to the villagers was unfair to other citizens.

“We cannot give privilege to people who have lived there by illegally building homes. We’ll try to offer them leased apartments at the lowest prices possible,” a city official said.

However Yu said if the city pushes ahead with its plan they would be driven out of the village. “So far, we’ve refused help from an association of tenants of redevelopment-designated areas because it usually leads to an aggressive struggle. But we may have to seek its assistance,” he said.