It is becoming increasingly probable that there was bribery involved in the course of the rapid pursuit of the Cheonggyecheon restoration project. Seoul vice mayor Yang Yun Jae, who used to oversee the project, was arrested Friday on charges he took dirty money from a construction contractor. Yang is protesting his innocence and that will be figured out in court, but if the facts are what prosecutors say they are then the facts are quite shocking. It would mean that once again the historical significance of the restoration project has been trampled on.
The prosecution says that someone in the construction business gave Yang more than W100 million and asked him to see to it that the height restrictions for buildings in the Uljiro area were relaxed. Many people had from the start been opposed to high-density development along Cheonggyecheon. The Seoul Development Institute issued an opinion about restrictions on high-rises. Despite that the city decided to allow buildings higher than thirty stories high, saying it wanted to prevent downtown from becoming desolate. You wonder whether that was the result of bribes or done in hope of bribes.
The restoration of Cheonggyecheon is a project long the hope of people concerned with Seoul's culture and with the city's citizens. Much about it, however, ended up going in ways inconsistent with the initial goals. The hasty and "ask-no-questions" pace of construction damaged many important historical remains because time was not allowed for proper restoration. The street vendors that made the area famous have all disappeared. The merchants have lost the basis of their livelihoods. And now with accusations of bribery as well, it almost looks as if the bad old "development first" habits of yesteryear have been resurrected.
The investigation has only just begun so it will take time for the full story to be revealed. A prosecution official says that it looks as if there were others involved. Given the scale of the concessions attached to high-density development it would seem the scale do the corruption would be significant as well. Seoul mayor Lee Myung Bak is the top man responsible for the Cheonggyecheon restoration project. It now becomes hard for Lee to avoid moral responsibility for having chosen Yang and entrusted him with the project. It is possible that certain people start to interpret the investigation as political, but let no one worry about that. We call on them to engage in a thorough investigation.
The Hankyoreh, 7 May 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
Dirty Money Dirties Cheonggyecheon |
