'Redevelopment Holy Land' Jungnang District Criticized for Opaque Resident Education Recruitment and Operation

Mayor Ryu Kyunggi Stresses "Key Initiative,"
But Non-Transparent Procedures and False Explanations by Officials Raise Concerns

Jungnang-gu, known as the most active district in Seoul for the Moa Town redevelopment project, has come under fire for recruiting and operating its redevelopment education programs in secrecy, drawing criticism from residents. During the explanation process, a public official was even found to have made false statements.

According to Jungnang-gu on March 19, the district recruited students for the "4th Housing Development Project Academy" from February to early this month, recently confirming 56 participants and notifying them individually by text message. Mayor Ryoo Kyung-ki has repeatedly emphasized that he is providing strong support for redevelopment by creating the "Housing Development Promotion Team" himself, making this academy a core resident education program for the district.

Jungnang District is one of the most active autonomous districts in redevelopment projects in Seoul. Ryu Kyunggi, Mayor of Jungnang District, is delivering a greeting at the graduation ceremony of the "3rd Housing Development Project Academy" last December. Courtesy of Jungnang District.

The program was designed to provide in-depth education on housing development for union presidents and members, to facilitate smooth project progress and enhance communication. Starting with the first session in January 2023 and continuing with the third session last year, the academy held 15 lectures over 10 months for 51 participants. This year, the number of sessions has been reduced to about 10 lectures, to be held once a month over approximately 10 months.

However, there have been continued complaints that the recruitment process is not public and that the participant selection procedures are questionable. Despite being an education program for local residents and members of redevelopment and reconstruction unions, there was no notice on the district's website or any official social media channels regarding recruitment. Applications were accepted informally through some union executives, without clear criteria, and even among those who only learned of the program after making inquiries and subsequently applied by phone, issues continued to arise. There were cases where people who applied early were not selected for the program, and the order of selection was inconsistent.

In response, a representative of the Jungnang-gu Housing Development Promotion Team said, "We compiled applications received by various department staff, but we did not record the date and time of application," yet also claimed, "There is no problem because applications were accepted on a first-come, first-served basis," giving an illogical explanation.

There were also instances where an applicant who had called the district office early to confirm their application was nevertheless excluded from the final list of participants. When asked for clarification, the district office staff changed their explanation, first saying, "It was only an application, not a confirmation," and later instructing, "You are number 5 on the waiting list, so please wait until you are contacted." In other words, they initially told the applicant to wait for contact after being registered, but when there was no contact and the applicant inquired again, they belatedly mentioned the "waiting list." When the applicant protested again, the staff member attempted to placate them by saying, "We will move you up to number 1 on the waiting list."

More seriously, it was revealed that these explanations were themselves false. Although they claimed applications were accepted in secret from January 27, this was later corrected to February 3. However, it was confirmed that the district office staff actually posted a short message in a KakaoTalk group chat with dozens of residents more than two weeks after the dates they had mentioned, saying, "If you want to apply, call the district office." Their claim that applications had filled up by February 20, and that they simply had not mentioned this at the time, is difficult to trust.

Although the district claimed that applications were accepted on a "first-come, first-served" basis, they could not even specify the application dates, and there were confirmed cases where people who applied later were selected for the program. One resident said, "The ‘9th Jungnang Real Estate CEO Program,’ for which participants were confirmed early last month, also had a non-transparent recruitment and selection process."

Although Mayor Ryoo Kyung-ki has emphasized resident-led development and promoted Jungnang-gu as the "holy place" of redevelopment, criticism is growing that resident education programs must be managed transparently from the outset. Jungnang-gu is one of the most active districts in Seoul for redevelopment projects, with a total of 27 sites—including 14 Moa Towns—designated as candidate locations for housing development.

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