Yeongi-Gonju Picked As New Administrative Capital

Yeongi-Gonju Picked As New Administrative Capital. August. 11, 2004 21:46. by Yong-Gwan Jung Yeon-Wook Jung yongari@donga.com jyw11@donga.com.

The Korean government, on August 11, announced Yeongi-Gonju (including the area of 21.6 million pyong (=69.42 million m2) in Nam, Dong and Geumnam myeon in Yeongi and Janggi-myeon in Gonju) in South Chungcheong Province as its final candidate site for Korea’s new administrative capital. However, the Grand National Party (GNP) described the announcement as “invalid and illegal” and is determined to reject the deliberation of budget on the capital relocation in the National Assembly’s regular session which created more controversy.

After the 6th session of the Presidential Committee on Administrative Capital Relocation meeting held at the Central Government Complex in Sejongno, Jongno-gu , Seoul on the same day, Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan revealed, “The Yeongi-Gonju area has gotten the highest mark among other candidate sites when evaluated as a new capital locale. There has also been no objection at public hearings across the nation.” He added, “In the next three months, we are going to study tax items on land in order to give notice of intention to designate both the area around the candidate sites and the candidate site itself by the end of this year.“

In addition, the presidential committee decided to lift restrictions on the land development and construction in three locales including Jincheon-Eumseong towns in North Chungcheong Province and in South Chungcheong Province - the city of Cheonan and districts of Gongju-Nonsan, which were once nominated as a candidate site.

Among these three places, Jincheon-Eumseong, in which speculative land transactions have been low, is expected to lift its designation as permitted zone for land transactions, and the city of Cheonan as special provisional districts for land transactions

The prime minister said, “There has been a request from the opposition parties to delay the announcement. However, it is to remove a number of restrictions on the three sites and to rapidly solve the difficulties people have gone through.” He insisted, “If the confirmed selection is delayed, the amount of indemnity for land will be greatly raised, resulting in more burden for the citizens.”

Meanwhile, Lee Gang-du, chairman of the GNP Committee on Capital Relocation, in the afternoon on the same day told a press conference at the headquarters of the party, “Without seeking national consensus, the government announcement is invalid and illegal.” “If the ruling party refuses to review the selection after organizing a special committee on capital relocation in the National Assembly, we will examine the legitimacy of the issue by ourselves in a bid to decide a party platform by the end of this year,” he revealed.

The chairman suggested the government and the ruling party to hold broadcast public debate, adding, “At the regular session in the National Assembly, we are going to reject the deliberation of budget on the issue and deal with the problem in advance at an assembly hearing.”

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) spokesperson, Bak Yong-jin, criticized, “The government’s announcement will be remembered as an arbitrary pursuit of the government ignoring people’s worries and criticism about its hasty pushing.” He added, “We will provide an alternative.”