Civic groups urge Dongducheon to preserve old STD management center

This undated picture shows the now-defunct Dongducheon STD management center in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Dongducheon city government

Civic groups on Monday urged the northern Gyeonggi city of Dongducheon to immediately halt a plan to demolish a former government-established facility to manage sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The now-defunct Dongducheon STD management center, about 40 kilometers north of Seoul, was set up after the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to manage STDs among sex workers serving U.S. soldiers. It was closed in 1996.

In February this year, the Dongducheon city government announced a plan to dismantle the old STD management center building as part of its tourism development plan for the vicinity of Mount Soyo.

Civic activists hold a joint press conference urging the Dongducheon city government to preserve the former Dongducheon STD management center, Seoul, Aug. 12. Yonhap

But a group of 59 civic groups, including the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, held a joint news conference in Seoul, saying the old STD management center should be preserved as a "symbolic space that shows the painful past of modern and contemporary Korean history."

They argued that the old STD management center has great preservation value because it is not a history that should be erased but a history that the nation should reflect on. (Yonhap)