Category: Seoul

This article makes me wonder what the old 2ID command bunker at Camp Red Cloud will be used for in the future with the closing of that camp:

For more than half a century, the Demilitarized Zone in Korea has been the site of clashes, skirmishes and tension. However, a new age is dawning on the Land of the Morning Calm and sites that were once used as bunkers and military installations are being converted into community, arts and culture spaces given back to the community at large. Sites that had previously been surrounded by barbed wire are seeing a transformation as the metal fencing is taken down and architects and artists come in to breathe new life into decaying structures. 

Citizens are able to walk in and use spaces that have been off limits for decades and with that, new communities are developing.

Last October, the Peace Culture Bunker was unveiled just outside of Dobongsan Station on Seoul Metro lines 1 and 7. Originally constructed between 1968 and 1970, the structure was a defensive shelter for tanks on the first floor and featured housing on the second. 

The third and fourth floors were meant to disguise and conceal the weapons within. Covertly named “Simin Apartment,” there were five buildings with three residential floors and each floor had six units. It was originally planned as a military housing complex to enable quick mobilization in the event of conflict.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

So says this survey:

South Korea’s capital city, Seoul, ranks as the seventh most expensive city in the world to live in this year, a survey showed Saturday.

The Worldwide Cost of Living (WCL) Survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), measures the prices of more than 150 items in 133 cities across the globe, with the index for New York set as a benchmark of 100.

According to the latest WCL poll, Seoul ranked seventh, on a par with New York, down one notch from the previous survey.

Singapore, Paris and Hong Kong are the joint most expensive cities in the world with an index of 107, followed by Zurich of Switzerland with 106, and its sister Geneva and Japan’s Osaka coming next with 101 each.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Even Seoul city mayor Park Won-soon is allocating taxpayers' money ($22.2 million) to give North Korea. #sanctionshttps://t.co/0kixuAFv92

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) February 10, 2019

I like this idea of having elevated bike paths, much safer than sharing the road with cars, especially in a congested city like Seoul:

Seoul has announced the winners of an architectural design contest for elevated bike paths that can provide cyclists a more continuous and safer ride around Seoul.

The first prize went to a submission titled “UNDER the C,” which drew up plans for a bike path beneath an elevated expressway in northeastern Seoul. If built, this elevated bike lane will connect cyclists in the Jeongneung Station area to the Jungnang stream, whose bike paths eventually connect to those along the Han River in the south. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Is it just me or is Gwanghwamun Square seem like it is in a state of constant redevelopment?:

In two years, Gwanghwamun Square may be grander above ground and more complex below as the Seoul city government plans to remove structures on the square and build an underground plaza connecting at least five different subway and train lines. 

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Monday that it selected a blueprint to renovate the square in central Seoul located south of Gyeongbok Palace by 2021.

“The announcement today is about more detailed plans to a project that was proposed last April with the Cultural Heritage Administration,” the city government said in a statement Monday. 

“We have decided on a winning design for the square that will focus on bringing back the historical value of the square and making it more pedestrian-friendly.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to learn in the future if all this yellow dust is going to have adverse health affects on Koreans:

Seoul was hit by a record-high level of ultrafine dust, known as a class one carcinogen, on Monday, as most of South Korea was blanketed by extraordinarily heavy levels of choking dust particles for the fourth consecutive day.
The Ministry of Environment has decided to extend a set of emergency measures aimed at reducing fine dust in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province through Tuesday. It would be the first time for the government to implement the system in the metropolitan area, which has around 20 million residents, for three consecutive days.
Under the step, vehicles with license plates ending in even numbers and used by public offices, will be restricted from operating on Tuesday. And the operation of 2.5-ton diesel cars or bigger ones, registered with metropolitan governments before 2005, will be limited.
The daily average level of ultrafine particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, in Seoul surged to 118 micrograms per cubic meter as of 3 p.m., the highest figure since the government began taking such measurements in 2015, according to the state-run National Institute of Environmental Research.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The more the native English-speaking waygook thinks these (admittedly horrible) slogans are horrible the more it’s apparent the waygook in question doesn’t know what he’s talking about, because he obviously thinks that if it’s in English he’s the target audience. https://t.co/RJYm35kr6n

— the oranckay (@oranckay) January 3, 2019

On the 80th anniversary of the Munich Agreement, may I say: It was a good thing that Neville Chamberlain had the good grace not to hoist a giant picture of Adolf Hitler on London's City Hall in 1938. https://t.co/4Lr9On1Y4K

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 29, 2018

More apartment construction is coming to the greater Seoul area:

The government named 17 sites where 35,000 apartment units will be built in the greater Seoul area, one of its attempts to cool off the overheated real estate market.

This is the first batch of sites the government announced. An additional 13 sites and 265,000 units will be announced later, including four to five “new cities” to be built next to the first generation of new cities such as Ilsan and Bundang in Gyeonggi.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday said it plans to supply 10,000 apartment units in Seoul on 11 sites. However only two areas in Seoul were disclosed as it is still working with the Seoul city government. The ministry said the Seoul government will announce the nine remaining sites.

The ones that were disclosed were Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, where the relocated Seongdong Detention Center used to stand, and Gaepo-dong, Gangnam District, southern Seoul. The two sites that were named are located on the edge of the nation’s capital, contrary to previous speculation that they would be located in the center of the city.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but Uijongbu has been selected as a suburb of Seoul that will also have more apartments constructed.  The government has not released where the apartments will be built, but with the closure of Camp Red Cloud in the near future, the old USFK military base could become yet another area in Korea covered in apartments.

Fortunately this happened when no kids where in school:

A kindergarten building in southern Seoul has tilted after a retaining wall at a nearby construction site collapsed. No casualties were reported but the incident led to the evacuation of some 50 people at one point.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: According to local authorities, the three-story Sangdo Kindergarten in the southern district of Dongjak tilted about ten degrees after the wall designed to prevent subsidence caved in at around 11:20 p.m. Thursday.

There were no casualties as the building was empty at the time but some 50 local residents had to evacuate and take shelter at a community center and hotel on Thursday night before returning home on Friday morning.   [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.