District denies ever demanding cash in lieu of building donation; District Mayor Yu Bo-hwa says completion delay unrelated to shrine dispute
Seongdong-gu said Friday it strongly regrets a series of news reports published Friday and Saturday about the Agissi-dang shrine in the Haengdang 7 redevelopment zone, saying the articles contained information clearly at odds with the facts.
The district first denied a report claiming that, after the shrine's completion, Seongdong-gu had asked the Haengdang 7 redevelopment association to donate cash instead of transferring ownership of the building. The district said no such demand was ever made, and that presenting the claim as established fact constituted a clear factual error and distortion.
The district also said reporting on who filed criminal complaints against current and former district mayors was inaccurate. The reports described the complaints as having been filed by "the Haengdang 7 association" or "the association side," but Seongdong-gu said the complaints were brought by individual association members acting on their own, not through any official decision-making process of the association.
The district said characterizing an individual member's complaint as a formal legal action by the entire association could give readers a false impression and must be corrected.
The district also flatly denied a report in Friday's coverage stating that Seongdong-gu District Office had been subject to a search and seizure in connection with the Agissi-dang matter, saying no such action had taken place and that the report bore no relation to objective fact.
In addition, the district said a report claiming that a building permit and temporary-use approval for the Agissi-dang were granted in May 2022 without review by the Seoul Metropolitan Government's cultural heritage committee reflected a misunderstanding of the applicable procedures.
According to Seongdong-gu, the Agissi-dang was designated in 2001 as the district's first registered local heritage site, and decisions regarding its relocation or reconstruction are not subject to the Seoul mayor's approval or review by the city's cultural heritage committee. Under the relevant district ordinance, such matters fall under the jurisdiction of Seongdong-gu's own local heritage protection committee, the district said.
The district also said reports claiming that District Mayor Yu Bo-hwa, during her tenure as deputy district mayor, had chaired the local heritage protection committee and been involved in the shrine's relocation procedures distorted the nature and scope of the committee's work.
The district said the two sessions of the local heritage protection committee that Yu chaired as deputy district mayor were convened solely to handle deliberation items related to the protection and preservation of local heritage, as specified in the relevant ordinance, and had no connection to the question of whether the Agissi-dang would be donated to the district. Drawing a link between her chairing of those sessions and any involvement in the donation or property-rights process, the district said, conflated the committee's statutory functions with an entirely separate matter.
"We respect the legitimate role of the press in criticism and oversight, but that role must be grounded in accurate facts," a district official said. "Reporting information that is contrary to fact does not become legitimate simply because it is framed as raising 'allegations.'"
The official added that repeatedly publishing information clearly inconsistent with the facts — or misrepresenting the intent of administrative procedures and statements — even after the district had explained the facts on multiple occasions, was difficult to regard as mere reporting error. "We urge the immediate correction of all inaccurate content, including the alleged cash donation demand, the identity of those who filed the complaints, the search-and-seizure claim, the cultural heritage review procedures, and statements related to the investigation," the official said.
To prevent the same or similar distortions from recurring, Seongdong-gu plans to file a complaint with the Korea Press Arbitration Commission over the disputed reports.
District Mayor Yu Bo-hwa said she deeply regrets the publication of inaccurate information. "The completion of the Haengdang 7 redevelopment project — which is what association members care most about right now — is a separate matter from the Agissi-dang issue," she said. "The daycare center construction, which had been causing the completion delay, will be handled by setting aside the construction costs in advance to guarantee its completion, and we plan to proceed immediately with the formal completion process on that basis. Regardless of how the Agissi-dang donation question is resolved, we will push ahead with all necessary administrative procedures without disruption and do our utmost to protect residents' property rights."
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