Seoul’s 740-Acre Yongsan Park Is Not Yet a Housing Site; Parliament Must Change the Law

The dispute is over a proposal, not an approved project

President Lee Jae Myung has proposed using part of the planned Yongsan Park area for apartment towers as Seoul home prices continue to rise. Mayor Oh Se-hoon opposes giving up any of the park site and argues that the densely populated capital needs daily-access green space.

The site covers about 300 hectares, or roughly 740 acres, near the Han River. It was occupied by military installations for more than a century, first under Japanese colonial rule and later by the United States. Turning it into a public park has therefore involved land transfer, environmental cleanup and national legislation—not only a city zoning choice.

The defensible status on September 22 is that the president has put housing on the policy agenda. Reuters reports that building on the protected site would require National Assembly action. No enacted amendment, final apartment count, construction schedule or approved site plan was identified in the reviewed public record.

The scale comparison clarifies what is at stake

At 300 hectares, the entire planned site equals about 3 square kilometers. That is roughly 56% of New York’s 843-acre Central Park. The comparison does not say the parks have the same design or ecology; it shows why either housing construction or full preservation would be a large, durable land-use decision.

Reuters reports that Seoul has about 16,000 residents per square kilometer and that apartment prices rose for 86 consecutive weeks through early September, according to the Korea Real Estate Board. Those two figures describe genuine pressure, but neither proves that this particular parcel is the best housing solution.

A serious comparison needs proposed unit counts, affordability rules, cleanup costs, transit capacity and the acreage that would remain public. Without those numbers, slogans about ‘needed homes’ or ‘losing the park’ are positions rather than completed impact analyses.

Four records would turn the political fight into a reviewable plan

Until those records exist, readers should separate the existence of a housing crisis from approval of this housing site. The first is supported by current price and density data; the second remains a contested legislative choice.

• A bill number and text showing exactly which Yongsan Park protections lawmakers would amend.
• A mapped boundary and unit count, including the share reserved for young people or below-market housing.
• An environmental assessment identifying contamination, cleanup responsibility and the timing of safe public use.
• A costed alternative showing how many homes could be delivered on greenbelt or golf-course land under the president’s broader proposal.

What to watch next

The next meaningful event is not another speech. It is the filing of legislation, publication of a land-use map or a formal consultation document. The National Assembly and the official Yongsan Park portal are the places to confirm those steps.

Mayor Oh is also a potential 2030 presidential contender, giving the dispute a national political layer. That context helps explain the intensity, but it should not substitute for evaluating the housing yield, public-space loss and cleanup obligations in the eventual documents.