"Nothing Is Easy..." O Sehun, Why Is It Difficult to Replace Heads of Affiliated Organizations?

Threat of Lower Priority for Reconstruction Complexes Amid Soaring Prices and Real Estate Disruption... Gwanghwamun Plaza Project Partially Revised but Continues, Civic Groups Sue, Organizational Restructuring Delayed, and City Agency Heads Replacement Hindered by So-called 'Environment Ministry Blacklist'

Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced on the 29th that he will strictly punish illegal activities in reconstruction complexes.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon made a spectacular comeback after winning the April 7 by-election, but there are many obstacles, making it far from easy.

He needs to increase apartment supply through reconstruction, one of his campaign promises, but with prices of target apartment complexes soaring, he is deeply concerned about how to overcome this first hurdle.

Since the implementation of the land transaction permit system, he directly held a briefing on the 29th, threatening to crack down on real estate market disturbances and stating that problematic complexes will inevitably be pushed to lower priority in reconstruction.

Regarding the Gwanghwamun Plaza development issue, he initially retreated by saying the ongoing projects would continue with some modifications, but was subsequently reported by civic groups.

Also, the ordinance amendment for Seoul city government reorganization is said to have retreated from the original plan.

This is partly because it is impossible to fight against the Democratic Party of Korea, which holds 101 out of 110 seats in the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

In particular, replacing heads of Seoul city-affiliated institutions does not seem easy unless the position is vacant.

This is because, during the current administration, the Minister of Environment was arrested following a court ruling when attempting to replace heads of Environment Ministry-affiliated institutions before their terms ended.

The first trial court recognized former Minister Kim’s guilt on charges of coercing resignations from executives of public institutions under the Environment Ministry and installing figures from the Blue House and elsewhere in the resulting vacancies. However, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 6-1 opened the first preparatory hearing on the 30th at 1 p.m., beginning the trial, and the outcome is being closely watched.

Therefore, even if a subordinate institution head has some issues, there is no means to remove them unless they are directly involved in a decisive problem.

A Seoul city official said, “In the past, it was not difficult to replace heads of affiliated organizations when a new mayor took office, but times have changed, and Seoul city is now very cautious about taking action.”

Accordingly, Mayor Oh’s statement before the election that “even if elected, there is not much to do this year” is proving true.

Seoul city’s budget for this year was already passed by the city council at the end of last year, limiting the possibility of reallocating funds for other purposes.

In any case, Mayor Oh seems to have to approach city administration this year with an even more ‘humble attitude.’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.