Before debating Yongsan’s future, South Korea must first reclaim the base from the US military

The first question in the debate over public housing and other uses at Seoul’s planned Yongsan Park is not what to build there, experts said. It is whether South Korea has recovered the entire former military base from the United States.

At an emergency forum in Seongsu, Seoul, landscape architecture professor Bae Jeong-han urged the government to begin negotiations with Washington to bring forward the return of the remaining Yongsan base. South Korea originally expected to receive the entire base by 2008, but the target moved to 2011 and then 2016. Disagreements over contamination cleanup costs have left even the final return year undecided. Only about 31% of the base has currently been returned.

Bae also argued that the return should cover sites not included in existing agreements. These include Dragon Hill Lodge, an 84,000-square-meter US military recreation and accommodation facility in the center of the planned park, its 21,000-square-meter access area and a 30,000-square-meter site for US Embassy staff housing. Choi Young of the Seoul Federation for Environmental Movement said the embassy site itself should also be returned and incorporated into the park.

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We need to begin negotiations with the United States to bring forward the date for the full return of the Yongsan base, which currently stands at about 31%.

The embassy and staff-housing area, totaling 79,000 square meters, lies on the former Camp Coiner site north of the base. The land originally belonged to the South Korean government. Seoul had planned to provide a former girls’ high school site to the United States for the embassy and housing, but instead offered land inside Yongsan. The staff-housing site was supposed to return to South Korea once alternative accommodation was provided, but that remains uncertain.

Bae went further, calling for the eventual relocation of the Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff, which occupy about 330,000 square meters. Relocating them to Gyeryongdae, where the Army, Navy and Air Force headquarters are based, has long been discussed. The idea is tied to the longstanding principle of defending Seoul and to possible moves by the presidential office and National Assembly to Sejong.

The remaining US-held land and the areas used by South Korea’s military total 580,000 square meters. Adding them all to the park would bring its size to 3.58 million square meters, or 3.63 million if the embassy site is included, larger than Central Park’s 3.41 million square meters. Yongsan historian Kim Cheon-su said the debate over the site’s use had begun too early while the base remained only partly returned. He called for a rapid full return followed by public discussion that respects the base’s history and ecology.

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The urgent task now is to receive the entire Yongsan base as soon as possible, while deciding its use through social discussion.