Gyeonggi-do "Goyang K-Culture Valley Public Development, Decision After Terminating Agreement with CJ"

Kang Min-seok, Spokesperson of Gyeonggi Province

Gyeonggi Province clarified that the public development of Goyang K-Culture Valley was decided before the contract termination with CJ, stating that this is not true, and that the public development was discussed after the contract termination in July.

They also emphasized that if the K-Culture Valley agreement had not been terminated, CJ's construction obligations would have disappeared, delay penalties would have been invalidated, and issues such as land reclamation upon sale would have arisen, making the decision unavoidable.

Kang Min-seok, spokesperson for Gyeonggi Province, said in a written briefing on the 4th, "To prevent distortion of Governor Kim Dong-yeon's true intentions regarding K-Culture Valley and to avoid misleading policy directions, I would like to clarify one more fact," adding, "The 'March public development rumor' implies that Gyeonggi Province had secretly decided to terminate the contract with CJ, but in March, Gyeonggi Province actually urged the central government to provide groundbreaking support to CJ. This was done through an official document."

He further stated, "Governor Kim Dong-yeon first received a report on the public development method for K-Culture Valley after the termination of the business agreement with CJ in July," and added, "The public development announced by Gyeonggi Province was first discussed and promoted at a TF meeting led by the First Deputy Governor in July."

In fact, it was confirmed that Gyeonggi Province sent an official letter to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on March 8th to normalize K-Culture Valley. The core content of the letter at that time was a request for groundbreaking support from the central government for CJ. Gyeonggi Province distributed the main contents of the letter as a press release on March 17th.

Spokesperson Kang Min-seok particularly asserted, "Gyeonggi Province did not want to terminate the business agreement with CJ," and "We had been steadily working to extend the basic agreement, which expires on June 30, 2024, but had no choice but to make an unavoidable decision."

He also stated, "The termination of the business agreement was a 'choice to protect the K-Culture Valley project,'" and "As Governor Kim Dong-yeon repeatedly emphasized in his response to the provincial administration questions yesterday (the 3rd), Gyeonggi Province will promptly proceed with the K-Culture Valley project by securing responsible capital while preserving its original form."

The K-Culture Valley project involves creating a state-owned land area of approximately 237,000㎡ (equivalent to 46 soccer fields) in Janghang-dong, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang City, to develop a K-Culture Valley theme park site with a cutting-edge large-scale performance hall and experiential studios.

The project implementer, CJ LiveCity, began the project by starting construction of the performance hall in August 2016. However, in January 2017, CJ LiveCity halted construction. Later, CJ LiveCity resumed arena construction in November 2021 but stopped construction again from April 2023, citing a change in contract method. Gyeonggi Province, seeing further negotiations as difficult and citing CJ LiveCity's lack of commitment to the project, decided to terminate the agreement in early July this year.