Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok responds to questions about the government's housing supply policy using Yongsan Park at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Land and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok responds to questions about the government's housing supply policy using Yongsan Park at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Land and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

Amid a standoff between the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Seoul Metropolitan Government over housing supply at Yongsan Park, Land Minister Kim Yun-deok said Wednesday the government has no intention of clearing the entire park's green space to build homes.

"What we are considering is whether there is an option to supply housing — particularly youth housing — on a limited basis in areas that have partially lost their function as park or green space," Kim said at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Land and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday.

Kim made similar remarks regarding housing supply on greenbelt land. "This is not about touching green space that needs to be preserved," she said. "The idea is to supply housing for young people in areas that have already lost their value as greenbelt land due to degradation."

She added that some areas — including officer quarters, military apartment complexes and sites formerly used by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration — had already completely lost their green function.

When Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-geun asked whether Seoul city had no objection to the supply itself and whether discussions were focused on the number of units — whether 6,000, 8,000 or 10,000 — the minister confirmed that was the case.

Meanwhile, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon attended a forum on "blocked supply and punitive taxation" jointly hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the People Power Party's Seoul chapter at the National Assembly on Wednesday morning. He said he was "deeply concerned about moves to push ahead with apartment supply in Yongsan Park" and added that the government "must not try to paper over its failure to rein in housing prices by pointing to Yongsan Park."

Oh noted that Yongsan Park is Seoul's last large-scale green space, saying the city's per-capita walkable park area is no more than 5.7 square meters. "Compared with major global cities such as New York and London, the green space available to residents in their daily lives is woefully inadequate," he said. "That is precisely why Yongsan Park must be preserved as a space for leisure, rest and natural ecology."


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