Democratic Party Gwangju Branch Urges Suspension of High-Rise Apartment Construction on Former Gwangju Prison Site

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] The Democratic Party of Korea's Gwangju City Party has called for the suspension of plans to build a super high-rise residential-commercial complex apartment on the site of the former Gwangju Prison in Munheung-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City.

On the 25th, the Democratic Party's Gwangju City Party stated in a press release, "The site of the former Gwangju Prison holds over 40 years of painful democratic history," and added, "It is undesirable that the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, entrusted with this project, is failing to honor its original intent and is solely focused on profit."

The Gwangju City Party pointed out, "According to the land use plan submitted to Gwangju City, only 23% of the former facility will be restored to its original prison form, and it is expected that 30-story or taller residential-commercial complex apartments will be built on 16% of the entire site," adding, "The original purpose of creating a Democracy and Human Rights Memorial Park is being neglected, and it seems they are only obsessed with land speculation and profit."

They continued, "This land is historically significant as the place where citizens were detained, tortured, and imprisoned during the May 18, 1980 Democratization Movement, and recently testimonies have emerged that the bodies of those who died during the martial law army's Gwangju lockdown operation were secretly buried near the prison," emphasizing, "We must not let the construction of super high-rise apartments spoil the surrounding landscape and degrade the historical significance by focusing solely on profit. We hope the plan to profit from super high-rise apartments will be abandoned."

Meanwhile, Gwangju City has had plans for the past 10 years to utilize the former prison site as a center of justice and freedom and as a venue for Asian human rights exchange. After selling part of the prison site to the private sector, the city planned to use the development profits to promote the project.

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