Incheon candidates blame former mayor for extending landfill's use

Yoo Jeong-bok, the ruling People Power Party's Incheon mayoral candidate, meets vendors at a fish market in Incheon's Namdong District, May 26. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published May 30, 2022 4:16 PM KST
• Updated May 31, 2022 2:35 PM KST

Ruling party candidate Yoo accused of having signed 'secret agreement' to extend landfill use until 2044

By Ko Dong-hwan

While Sudokwon Landfill in Incheon is overflowing with waste, a government document extending the landfill's use has emerged as a flashpoint for finger-pointing between the major parties' mayoral candidates.

The document, agreed and stamped in July 2015 by then-Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu and then-Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, stated that the parties wished to adjust the period of the landfill's use from “1989―December 2016” to “1989―December 2044.” The document stated further that the two parties want to use a section of the landfill 1.03 million square meters large ― which was part of the remaining 8.13 million square meters of unused area within the landfill site ― until December 2044.

The document followed a meeting in June 2015 between senior environment officials from the governments of Incheon, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and the Ministry of Environment, in which the officials agreed to extend the landfill's use. Current mayoral candidate Yoo Jeong-bok was the mayor and head of Incheon city government at the time.

The document has drawn a fierce backlash from Incheon residents who are fed up with receiving trash from other cities.

The contentious document was first revealed to the public on May 27 by main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Incheon mayoral candidate Park Nam-choon to condemn his rival, Yoo Jeong-bok of the ruling People Power Party (PPP). Park said the four-party agreement was reached during Yoo's 2014-2018 term as Incheon mayor, blaming Yoo for extending the landfill's use until 2044.

Park said on May 27 that he had discovered that the original document had been sent to the Incheon city government three times following the four-party agreement in June 2015, highlighting the “legal validity” the Seoul mayor and the environment minister who stamped the document believed the document carried.

“Yoo has said that the four-party agreement was discarded and that it no longer has validity,” Park said. “Yoo was lying.”

Yoo's election camp released a statement on May 28 saying that he would find an alternative landfill site and end the use of the Sudokwon Landfill within his term if he wins the election.

But despite Yoo's pledge, observers say that the four-party agreement is still effective and won't be annulled unless the four parties meet again to reach a new agreement.

According to Korean-language newswire service News1 on May 28, Incheon Metropolitan City, to quell the enraged public, produced a forged copy of the document with the year 2044 erased and instead replaced by a new term that stated the parties would seek an alternative landfill site outside Incheon while using the 1.03 million square meters of the landfill and, if they fail to find a new site, would be given an additional unused area of 1.06 million square meters.

Following Park unveiling the original document, an online movement including residents of Incheon's Seo District (where the landfill is located) denouncing Yoo for having allowed the four-party agreement has also emerged.

“Let's not forget that it was Yoo who had agreed with the plan of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, also running for reelection on the PPP ticket, to keep disposing Seoul's waste at Sudokwon Landfill,” one resident living in Incheon's Cheongna International City wrote online. He was referring to the incumbent Seoul mayor's argument made in a May 26 TV debate, in which he had objected to the Incheon city government planning to end the landfill's use in 2025. Mayor Oh had called for trash produced in Seoul to continue to be discarded at Sudokwon Landfill until 2044 because “there is nowhere to keep Seoul's trash within Seoul.”

Public animosity against Yoo about the contentious document appeared to be boiling over as the public opinion rating for Park increased, reducing Yoo's lead. A survey by PNR conducted on May 13 and 14 showed that over 50 percent of respondents supported Yoo and 35 percent favored Park. But according to a follow-up survey conducted by Korea Politics Research Association on May 22 and 23, Park's rating has increased to 43 while Yoo's rating has stayed in place. Park's election camp attributed the reduced gap to the document's impact on the public, which dragged Yoo's approval rating down.

Kim Han-byeol, another Incheon mayoral candidate on the minor Basic Income Party's ticket, said on May 29 on Facebook that he coincidentally met Yoo while both were canvassing at a shopping center in Incheon's Songdo area earlier that day. Kim and his election campaign crew were using slogans that Incheon is “not a trashcan” and Sudokwon Landfill should stop receiving trash from Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

“I saw Yoo and approached him to say that Oh Se-hoon and the PPP are demanding that trash from the capital region keep going into Sudokwon Landfill,” Kim said on Facebook. “I asked Yoo what his exact stance was as to how much longer the landfill should accept trash from outside Incheon. But he didn't answer me and instead fled the scene.”

According to Kim's post, Oh said that Seoul will discard its trash in the landfill until 2044 in accordance with the four-party agreement from 2015, but Yoo has said that the agreement meant the landfill's use will end in 2025. “Who is telling the truth here? Yoo should clarify his and the ruling party's plan as to when to the landfill's use will end,” Kim said. “This is the question such a person intending to become the mayor of Incheon must answer right now.”