[News Spot] Ahead of Seol... Seoul's Sore Spot 'Guryong Maeul'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] On the 20th, Guryong Village, which suffered fire damage, is a painful spot in Seoul. It is the only slum area located in Gangnam-gu, a representative affluent district of Seoul lined with luxury apartments and villas.

Located on the northern foothills of Guryongsan in Yeomgok-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, it is called Guryong Village. It is said that the name Guryongsan originated from an old story where a pregnant woman saw ten dragons ascending to the sky, screamed in surprise, causing one dragon to fall and die, while nine dragons ascended to the heavens.

Before the 1988 Seoul Olympics, people living in unauthorized buildings in the city center were displaced due to urban redevelopment and gathered here, forming the village. In 1994, when the shantytown in Dogok-dong was selected and demolished for the site of the luxury residential complex Tower Palace, residents from there also moved into Guryong Village, expanding its size.

On the 20th, firefighters are extinguishing a fire in Guryeong Village, Gangnam.
[Photo by the National Fire Agency]

In the 1990s and early 2000s, some residents bought and sold houses in exchange for pre-sale rights during redevelopment, but now the Gangnam-gu district and Seoul city manage the area to prevent new residents from moving in, so transactions no longer occur. After Seoul city allowed residents to register their addresses in 2011 as part of an urban maintenance plan, the number of households initially identified was 1,107, but as some left one by one, the remaining households are 606.

Due to the structure of the shantytown, where residents endure summer heatwaves and winter cold with only thin plywood walls, it is vulnerable to fires, and small and large fires have been frequent. In the past eight years, there have been three major fires: in November 2014, one person died and 16 houses were destroyed; in March 2017 and March last year, large fires also occurred, causing residents to evacuate.

Seoul city plans to build 4,000 public rental housing units on a 266,304㎡ site in Gaepo-dong 567-1, Gangnam-gu, where Guryong Village is located. Initially, the plan was to build a total of 2,838 units, including 1,731 for sale and 1,107 public rental units, but the plan was changed to build only public rental housing by eliminating the for-sale units. Construction began last year and is scheduled to be completed by 2025, but due to differences in positions between village residents and Seoul city, the project has been indefinitely delayed.