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- [4 Years Since the Yongsan Disaster] "They Killed My Family, Yet It's Still a Vacant Lot. What was the Hurry? Kicking the People Out First..."
- By Lee Seong-hee mong2@kyunghyang.com
The setting was a redevelopment district (urban environment improvement project) in Sunhwa-dong, Seoul on the morning of January 15. An area the size of 2~3 school playgrounds (13,000m2) was left empty eclipsing the fact that it was located in the middle of downtown Seoul. In the vacant lot where weeds had taken over, there stood a house ready to collapse and a few snowplows giving a desolate feel to the place.
Until the early 2000s, this place was packed with workers during lunch time. The lot is adjacent the National Police Agency, Seoul City Hall, and Seoul Station, and the City Hall subway station on lines one and two and the Seodaemun station on line five are located nearby. The area was known as a place where success was guaranteed regardless of what shop you opened. After the area was designated for redevelopment in 2003, the residents were cast out, but the discovery of corruption in the redevelopment association suspended development and the lot has been left vacant so far.
On January 15, a nationwide memorial committee on the fourth anniversary of the Yongsan disaster organized a bus tour of redevelopment sites, which toured other Yongsans demolished for redevelopment ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Yongsan disaster (Jan. 20). The event was organized to show how inadequate development policies can devastate a person's life and livelihood and let people know that the Yongsan disaster was still ongoing. The Redevelopment Hope Bus, with more than fifty people on board including the bereaved family of the Yongsan disaster victims and citizens, started at Sunhwa-dong and toured three areas still left empty several years after being selected as redevelopment sites.
Yu Yeong-suk (52) beat her chest as soon as she arrived at Sunhwa-dong. Yu is the widow of late Yun Yong-hyeon, who died in the Yongsan disaster, where five residents and one police officer were killed in the process of demolishing the site in January 2009. Yun had joined the struggle as a fellow evicted resident. Sunhwa-dong was where Yu and her husband had run a Korean restaurant, Mirakjeong, for over ten years. Mirakjeong was well known in this neighborhood for its many patrons.
The couple's lives began to fall apart when they received a redevelopment notice in May 2005. The compensation for tenants like Yu was set at 10~12 million won. They were just notified of the decision. Soon employees of a demolition service company began harassing them. Abusive words too base to mention were the norm. They entered restaurants still open and violently disturbed their business. Residents left in search of some other place. Customers also left one by one. Yu's husband, Yoon said, "I'll help others who have been deprived of their rights like me," and headed for Yongsan never to return.
Yu still visits this place once a month. She comes to see if construction has begun. She burst out in rage saying, "It breaks my heart because whenever I come here I remember when our family was happy. What was the hurry? Why did they have to kick the people out so fast by force? I'd feel less wronged if a new building was standing."
The bus made its second stop at Deoki village in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. A tent stood perilously on one side of the road. "A home is a human right. Evicted tenants are people, too. We want to live like humans." This placard was hung over the tent, which is home to Kim Myeong-ja (52) and her three daughters. The tent is barely big enough for the four people to lie down in and only has a shower where they can wash, but the family has lived in this tent for five years.
In 2001 when Kim opened her furniture store, this area was famous nationwide as an area lined with furniture stores. Kim invested over 200 million won on interior decorating for a store that was over 660m2 large, because this was an area where business was bustling. People called her a successful female CEO.
Her life changed in April 2008. The building owner sold the land to a developer and Kim was left penniless with no premium and no relocation expenses. When her appeal to the court ended in vain, she erected the tent on the spot where her shop used to stand. On the verge of tears, Kim said, "It hurts me most to think that my three daughters have to spend their adolescence in a tent pestered by the contractors. My youngest daughter used to dream of becoming a veterinarian, but now she says she'll become an architect to build her mother a pretty house." High-rise apartments were built in the area near where they demolished her furniture store, but the neighborhood is haunted with unsold apartments.
The last stop that the bus made was at Singok village in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. This village is located by the Gimpo tollgate and had densely housed over 90 factories. But it did not take long for the village to end up in ruins. When a redevelopment boom spread in 2006, developers competed to buy in the land in order to obtain the rights to redevelopment. The price of land ballooned without a single building constructed, and as the developers faced financial challenges, the development project was suspended. Currently the 1,150,000m2 Singok village is filled with abandoned houses and factories. Pieces of junk litter the empty buildings, which have no sign of any human warmth. Recently, there was a case in which outsiders came here to commit suicide.
Song Mi-sun (54), who had run a factory manufacturing plastic products for 25 years here, said, "I wasn't able to operate the factory after redevelopment, so I could not pay my taxes. The district tax office shut me down in 2010. I'm here because I have nowhere else to go."
Jeon Jae-suk (70) lost her husband in the Yongsan disaster and had to send her son to prison for the same incident. She looked around the three areas and said, "They acted like a fancy building would be erected as soon as they evicted the residents in Yongsan, too. But they haven't even started construction and the site of the disaster still remains a vacant lot. We only demanded that they let us continue with our lives the way we had in the past."
Park Rae-gun, executive director of Human Rights Foundation Saram, said, "Since the developers are guaranteed profits as long as they drive the people out, they brutally proceed with the demolition. Development that robs people of their livelihood and residence should be abolished."
Until the early 2000s, this place was packed with workers during lunch time. The lot is adjacent the National Police Agency, Seoul City Hall, and Seoul Station, and the City Hall subway station on lines one and two and the Seodaemun station on line five are located nearby. The area was known as a place where success was guaranteed regardless of what shop you opened. After the area was designated for redevelopment in 2003, the residents were cast out, but the discovery of corruption in the redevelopment association suspended development and the lot has been left vacant so far.
Yongsan disaster?
Over thirty people including evicted residents and members of the National Association of Evicted Residents, who opposed the government‘s compensation policy for the redevelopment of Yongsan district 4, demanded adequate compensation and protested in the Namildang building they occupied located in Hangangno 2-ga, Yongsan in the early morning of January 19, 2009. During the sit-in, a fire broke out amid a clash with the police and contractors killing 5 residents and 1 SWAT team member and injuring 23 people. This incident is referred to as the Yongsan disaster. Heated arguments rose on the cause of the accident, and many criticized the police for excessive use of force to break up the demonstration without any safety measures. However, the prosecutors concluded that it was a lawful execution of official government duty.
Over thirty people including evicted residents and members of the National Association of Evicted Residents, who opposed the government‘s compensation policy for the redevelopment of Yongsan district 4, demanded adequate compensation and protested in the Namildang building they occupied located in Hangangno 2-ga, Yongsan in the early morning of January 19, 2009. During the sit-in, a fire broke out amid a clash with the police and contractors killing 5 residents and 1 SWAT team member and injuring 23 people. This incident is referred to as the Yongsan disaster. Heated arguments rose on the cause of the accident, and many criticized the police for excessive use of force to break up the demonstration without any safety measures. However, the prosecutors concluded that it was a lawful execution of official government duty.
On January 15, a nationwide memorial committee on the fourth anniversary of the Yongsan disaster organized a bus tour of redevelopment sites, which toured other Yongsans demolished for redevelopment ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Yongsan disaster (Jan. 20). The event was organized to show how inadequate development policies can devastate a person's life and livelihood and let people know that the Yongsan disaster was still ongoing. The Redevelopment Hope Bus, with more than fifty people on board including the bereaved family of the Yongsan disaster victims and citizens, started at Sunhwa-dong and toured three areas still left empty several years after being selected as redevelopment sites.
On January 15, a nationwide memorial committee on the fourth anniversary of the Yongsan disaster toured three redevelopment sites where they forced demolition: Sunhwa-dong, Seoul; Deoki-dong, Ilsan; and Singok-ri, Gimpo. Over fifty people including the bereaved families of Yongsan victims and members of the National Association of Evicted Residents listen to the suffering of the residents who were forced out of the redevelopment site and look around the demolished areas hoping that a second Yongsan disaster would not recur. Kim Gi-nam
Yu Yeong-suk (52) beat her chest as soon as she arrived at Sunhwa-dong. Yu is the widow of late Yun Yong-hyeon, who died in the Yongsan disaster, where five residents and one police officer were killed in the process of demolishing the site in January 2009. Yun had joined the struggle as a fellow evicted resident. Sunhwa-dong was where Yu and her husband had run a Korean restaurant, Mirakjeong, for over ten years. Mirakjeong was well known in this neighborhood for its many patrons.
The couple's lives began to fall apart when they received a redevelopment notice in May 2005. The compensation for tenants like Yu was set at 10~12 million won. They were just notified of the decision. Soon employees of a demolition service company began harassing them. Abusive words too base to mention were the norm. They entered restaurants still open and violently disturbed their business. Residents left in search of some other place. Customers also left one by one. Yu's husband, Yoon said, "I'll help others who have been deprived of their rights like me," and headed for Yongsan never to return.
Yu still visits this place once a month. She comes to see if construction has begun. She burst out in rage saying, "It breaks my heart because whenever I come here I remember when our family was happy. What was the hurry? Why did they have to kick the people out so fast by force? I'd feel less wronged if a new building was standing."
On January 15, a nationwide memorial committee on the fourth anniversary of the Yongsan disaster protests against authorities along with the residents evicted from the redevelopment site in Deoki-dong, Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province. The banner reads, "Apologize for Irresponsible Development and Provide Housing and Survival Measures." Kim Gi-nam
The bus made its second stop at Deoki village in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. A tent stood perilously on one side of the road. "A home is a human right. Evicted tenants are people, too. We want to live like humans." This placard was hung over the tent, which is home to Kim Myeong-ja (52) and her three daughters. The tent is barely big enough for the four people to lie down in and only has a shower where they can wash, but the family has lived in this tent for five years.
In 2001 when Kim opened her furniture store, this area was famous nationwide as an area lined with furniture stores. Kim invested over 200 million won on interior decorating for a store that was over 660m2 large, because this was an area where business was bustling. People called her a successful female CEO.
Her life changed in April 2008. The building owner sold the land to a developer and Kim was left penniless with no premium and no relocation expenses. When her appeal to the court ended in vain, she erected the tent on the spot where her shop used to stand. On the verge of tears, Kim said, "It hurts me most to think that my three daughters have to spend their adolescence in a tent pestered by the contractors. My youngest daughter used to dream of becoming a veterinarian, but now she says she'll become an architect to build her mother a pretty house." High-rise apartments were built in the area near where they demolished her furniture store, but the neighborhood is haunted with unsold apartments.
The last stop that the bus made was at Singok village in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. This village is located by the Gimpo tollgate and had densely housed over 90 factories. But it did not take long for the village to end up in ruins. When a redevelopment boom spread in 2006, developers competed to buy in the land in order to obtain the rights to redevelopment. The price of land ballooned without a single building constructed, and as the developers faced financial challenges, the development project was suspended. Currently the 1,150,000m2 Singok village is filled with abandoned houses and factories. Pieces of junk litter the empty buildings, which have no sign of any human warmth. Recently, there was a case in which outsiders came here to commit suicide.
Song Mi-sun (54), who had run a factory manufacturing plastic products for 25 years here, said, "I wasn't able to operate the factory after redevelopment, so I could not pay my taxes. The district tax office shut me down in 2010. I'm here because I have nowhere else to go."
Jeon Jae-suk (70) lost her husband in the Yongsan disaster and had to send her son to prison for the same incident. She looked around the three areas and said, "They acted like a fancy building would be erected as soon as they evicted the residents in Yongsan, too. But they haven't even started construction and the site of the disaster still remains a vacant lot. We only demanded that they let us continue with our lives the way we had in the past."
Park Rae-gun, executive director of Human Rights Foundation Saram, said, "Since the developers are guaranteed profits as long as they drive the people out, they brutally proceed with the demolition. Development that robs people of their livelihood and residence should be abolished."
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