The Seoul Grand Park and Zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, outside the Seoul proper, remains under the control of Seoul City government since it was established 1984, when animals were moved there from the Changgyeong Palace compound. Still it is rare for the busy Seoul mayor to make an official visit to the zoo far from his office. Records show that former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon visited it just once in 2009.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon took time out Monday to go to Seoul Zoo where he held a press conference. There he announced the city government plan to release “Jedori,” a dolphin that the zoo had purchased from an aquarium in Jeju Island in 2009, back to the wild. Park specifically chose the Gureombi coast near Seogwipo of Jeju Island as the new natural habitat to which Jedori will return after about a year of adaptation training in the waters of Jeju. Seoul City is to spend 800 million won ($720,000) to build a facility for the rehabilitation of the dolphin.
Gureombi is the site of the construction of a naval base where violent clashes continue between police and an alliance of opposition politicians, civic activists and a part of residents opposing the establishment of a military facility in what they call “the Island of Peace,” Korea’s best-known tourist attraction. So, it is not hard to conjecture that the liberal mayor had the focus of his press conference at the zoo fixed on Gureombi as he publicized Jedori’s freedom.
Before he ran for the Seoul mayoral by-election last October, Park had joined the leftist movement against the naval base project on Jeju Island. As the mayor of the capital city now, Park must be aware of the inappropriateness of directly involving himself in the naval base controversy, so he chose the dolphin to send his political message in support of the anti-base campaign. “Jedori should be allowed to swim freely in the waters off Gureombi, where, I hear, dolphins appear from time to time,” Park explained.
Yet, we cannot readily approve the mayor’s apparent political gambit under the guise of ecological crusade. If he is so dedicated to the environmentalist and anti-military cause, we would suggest he take a leave of absence and join the demonstrators at Gangjeong Village instead of playing politics with a dolphin.
