The Seoul municipal government said Friday it has dismissed requests from a ward office to review a plan to build a memorial park for Park Chung-hee, the late president and father of the incumbent leader, amid controversy over project.
Earlier this month, Seoul's Jung-gu district office said it will push to build the park around the former Park family house in Shindang-dong in central Seoul, where he lived for three years before seizing power in a 1961 coup. President Park Geun-hye also lived there for a few years after her father was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979.
Critics of the project have claimed that it is an attempt to beautify the former leader, who is lauded by supporters as the economic savior who pulled the country out of poverty, but denounced by detractors as a dictator.
After completing a feasibility study, the Jung-gu office twice sent a request to the municipal government this week to review the project, but they were both rejected.
In pushing for the project with a budget of 28.5 billion won ($25.2 million), the ward office set up a plan to receive 20 percent of the expenses from the city and 50 percent from the central government.
"The project requires the city's subsidies, but the ward office has never discussed the matter with us before," a city official said, explaining the reason for the dismissal.
"We need more time to review the case, but some officials here are skeptical about whether the project is feasible," another city official said.
But the ward office argued that it notified the city of the project earlier this year and prior consultation is not mandatory under the law.
After the ward office's plan sparked controversy, President Park said earlier this week that she sees using taxpayer money for the project as "undesirable" amid economic difficulties.
Unabated, however, Choi Chang-shik, the ward office chief, expressed his will to continue the project citing the great importance of former President Park in modern Korean history.
After a decade of controversy, a separate memorial hall dedicated to the late leader opened in western Seoul in 2002. (Yonhap News)
