Ministry of National Defense Halts 'Hillstade The Unjeong' Completely

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] Controversy is growing as the construction project of ‘Hillstate The Unjeong,’ a 3,413-unit complex being promoted around Unjeong Station in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, has been completely halted. This is because the Ministry of National Defense issued a suspension order for military operation reasons after the subscription process for ‘Hillstate The Unjeong’ had already begun.

According to the construction industry on the 14th, Hillstate The Unjeong, constructed by Hyundai Engineering & Construction, is planned to be built in P1 and P2 zones of Paju Unjeong New Town, consisting of 13 buildings from 5 basement floors to 49 above-ground floors, with a total floor area of approximately 828,000㎡, including 744 apartments and 2,669 residential officetels.

The subscription application had already started on December 1, attracting 27,027 applications for 2,669 units, recording an average competition rate of 10.1 to 1. This is the highest competition rate in Paju since subscription statistics began in 2015.

According to the industry, Hayul D&C, the project implementer, requested construction-related consultation from the Ministry of National Defense in June 2019, and at that time, the Ministry replied that it was “not a subject for prior consultation.”

However, when Paju City inquired with the local military unit in April last year, the military changed its stance, stating that it was a “subject for consultation” based on the Land Development Promotion Act, not a military facility protection zone. Accordingly, Paju City requested a preliminary consultation from the Board of Audit and Inspection in September, and the Board also expressed the opinion that “it is not necessarily a project that must go through military consultation.” Based on this, Paju City approved the housing construction project plan for Hillstate The Unjeong in April.

However, last month, the Ministry of National Defense changed its position. It applied for adjustment to the Administrative Coordination Committee, requesting a change to Paju City’s project plan approval. The Ministry argued that “the Hwangryongsan air defense position located 1.7 km behind the Hillstate The Unjeong project site is performing an anti-air defense mission in case of emergency, where enemy aircraft can advance to the metropolitan area in the shortest time,” and insisted that the building height must be lowered.

The industry claims that since the Ministry of National Defense did not express an opinion that construction was impossible back in 2019, housing construction proceeded, and if the current project plan approval is reversed, the damage could amount to hundreds of billions of won.

An industry official said, “If it was an important area for national security or other public interests, sufficient measures should have been taken in advance,” adding, “The belated brake is nothing but a face-saving administrative act.”

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