Apartment Under Construction Near Joseon Royal Tombs to Halt Construction Starting Tomorrow

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Construction is expected to be halted for two of the three apartment complexes being built near the Joseon royal tombs cultural heritage preservation area.

On the 29th, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration, the Seoul Administrative Court dismissed two of the three provisional injunction requests filed by construction companies building apartments in Geomdan New Town, Seo-gu, Incheon, seeking to suspend the enforcement of construction stop orders, and approved one.

Accordingly, construction will be halted from the 30th on 12 buildings out of 23 buildings in two apartment complexes (1,900 households) whose provisional injunction requests were dismissed. The remaining 11 buildings are not included in the cultural heritage preservation area, so construction can proceed regardless of this decision.

For the other apartment complex (about 1,400 households) where the provisional injunction was approved, construction can continue on 7 out of 21 buildings. The remaining 14 buildings in this complex are not included in the cultural heritage preservation area, so construction can continue.

The Cultural Heritage Administration previously judged that these construction companies violated the Cultural Heritage Protection Act by building apartments in the historical and cultural environment preservation area within a 500m radius of cultural heritage sites without prior review, and ordered the suspension of apartment construction starting from the 30th of this month, along with filing a police complaint.

The order targeted 19 buildings included in the cultural heritage preservation area out of 44 buildings in apartment complexes totaling about 3,400 households being built by the three construction companies in Geomdan New Town. In January 2017, the Administrator of the Cultural Heritage Administration announced that buildings over 20 meters in height within a 500m radius of Gimpo Jangneung would be subject to individual review, but these construction companies did not undergo such review while building high-rise apartments.

The construction companies filed provisional injunction requests to suspend enforcement with the court on July 22 when the Cultural Heritage Administration issued the construction stop order, and continued construction after the injunction was approved.

Subsequently, the Cultural Heritage Administration revoked the existing order ex officio and reissued the construction stop order, and the construction companies filed another provisional injunction request with the court.

The apartment sites of these construction companies are located near Jangneung in Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do. Gimpo Jangneung is the tomb of Wonjong (1580?1619), the fifth son of King Seonjo of Joseon and father of King Injo, and his wife Queen Inheon (1578?1626). Gimpo Jangneung is designated Historic Site No. 202 and is included among the 40 Joseon royal tombs registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

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