Source: The Korea Herald

What happened

According to The Korea Herald, Land Minister Kim Yoon-deok and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met Thursday over whether housing should go on the main Yongsan Park site and failed to agree. About 3 square kilometers is set aside for the park; the abandoned main Yongsan Garrison accounts for roughly two-thirds of that footprint.

Oh said he would go down as a “sinner” if he converted even a limited slice of the main park into housing, calling Yongsan a green corridor between Namsan and the Han River. Kim argued park preservation and homes for young people are not incompatible, and floated limited development on already-built or altered parcels — former officers’ quarters, military apartments, and the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration site. Talks continue next week.

The breakdown

Herald reporting splits the deadlock into law, politics, and timeline:

• Special Act lock: Under the Yongsan Park Special Act, the main garrison site must become a park and cannot be converted or sold for other uses. The ruling Democratic Party is pushing a revision; a parliamentary vote slipped from Thursday to next week amid opposition.
• Return status: About 31% of the former garrison has been returned so far (first sections in 2020, more in 2022 under the long relocation to Pyeongtaek).
• Lee pledge backdrop: The dispute revives Lee Jae Myung’s 2022 campaign pledge to build 100,000 homes on parts of the main park site, mainly for younger Koreans.
• Flexible periphery: Oh said Seoul can be more flexible on Camp Kim, Gyeongnidan, and Foreign Ministry / public parking parcels, and would support housing infrastructure there — while rejecting Kim’s “already built” carve-out for the main site.
• Remediation reality: Oh said Camp Kim remediation has run about five years and is still incomplete — so housing there cannot start in the current administration.
• Supply pressure: Seoul’s housing supply ratio was 93.9% in 2024 versus a national 102.9%. Density hit 15,432 residents per square kilometer in 2025.

Why it matters outside Korea

If you rent, buy, or advise Korea-touching capital in Seoul, this is not a park aesthetics story. It is a fight over whether central returned land becomes green corridor or near-term supply — and whether a Special Act rewrite unlocks the main site or only the edges. Treat next week’s Assembly vote and the Kim–Oh follow-up as the real calendar, not any “homes on Yongsan next year” headline. Near Yongsan / Gyeongnidan, Camp Kim and ministry parking are the nearer-term zoning conversation; the main garrison fight is slower and legally harder.

What travelers and expats should watch

• Do not plan around a tower skyline on the main park. The Special Act still requires a park until revised; remediation and incomplete return stretch the clock.
• Re-check next week’s Assembly vote and Kim–Oh talks before treating the Lee-era 100,000-home pledge as imminent inventory.
• If you live or work near Camp Kim / Gyeongnidan / ministry parking, watch those parcels for earlier infrastructure moves — Oh marked them more flexible.
• Do not let park-vs-housing headlines outrun remediation. Oh’s five-year Camp Kim note is the operational brake.

Context

Read this as a legal and timeline standoff over returned garrison land, not as proof Seoul already chose housing over a national park — or that one Thursday meeting killed supply forever. The Herald cut that matters is Kim’s “limited development on altered ground” versus Oh’s “sinner” line on any main-site conversion, with the Special Act and postponed DPK vote as the binding layer. The 93.9% supply ratio explains urgency; it does not erase remediation or the ~31% return share.

Source

The Korea Herald: Is Yongsan Park a quick fix for Seoul’s housing shortage? — paraphrased for briefing; read the original for full detail and expert quotes.