Choi Min-woo

The author is the editor of political, international, foreign and security news at the JoongAng Ilbo.

I visited Jongmyo on Sunday afternoon. It was crowded. Visitors waited about 10 minutes in the ticket booth line, and once inside the grounds, I found foreign tourists and tour groups filling the walkways.



The current debate over the Jongmyo skyline is not about the shrine being invisible from the outside because of redevelopment in the nearby Sewoon district. The controversy centers on whether high-rise buildings to the south would damage the view when one stands in front of Jeongjeon, Jongmyo's main hall, and looks toward the city. So I tried it myself. The Cultural Heritage Administration says a building that rises above the tree line would intrude on the landscape. Even now, through a gap in the trees on the right, a distant building was visible. It turned out to be the 27-story Hillstate Sewoon Central complex completed two years ago. If high-rises are built in the disputed Sewoon District 4, which is even closer, they would likely appear around the nine-o'clock direction from Jeongjeon. But I found myself questioning whether a partial view of a building at an angle truly undermines the historical meaning of Jongmyo.

What bothered me more than the sightline was the noise. Live trot music blasted through oversize speakers, breaking the quiet that a historic site should offer. The sound came from a talent show called the "New Singer Contest," staged on an empty lot in front of the Sewoon complex. A shopkeeper told me, "Events like this happen all the time. Most of the people who come through here are middle-aged anyway." Between Jongmyo and Sewoon, separated by an eight-lane road, protests, religious events and cultural gatherings are frequent. Noise rarely stops. The area looked less like a revitalized district and more like a deteriorating city center far removed from anything youthful or trendy.

The dispute intensified ahead of next year's local elections, following the city government's announcement of the District 4 redevelopment plan on Oct. 30 and the Supreme Court ruling on Nov. 6 upholding Seoul's ordinance permitting the project. But disagreements over protecting Jongmyo while redeveloping Sewoon have dragged on for two decades. Korean society has tended to prioritize cultural preservation. Damage during the colonial period and the Korean War, along with criticism of development-first policies in the 1970s and 80s, produced a strong reflex to protect heritage. As a result, redevelopment in the old city center around Jongno has repeatedly stalled, with the Sewoon complex at the center of the stalemate.

Built in 1968 as Korea's first mixed-use complex, Sewoon once housed early tech companies, including firms such as Hancom and Trigem that later became familiar to Korean consumers. But today it is widely considered an outdated eyesore. Parts of its exterior facade collapsed two years ago, injuring a merchant. During my visit on Sunday, the narrow alleys behind the complex resembled a slum, to the point that walking through them felt unsafe. Kim Jong-kil, a representative of residents in District 4, recalled numerous reviews by the Cultural Heritage Committee between 2009 and 2018. "They kept saying no, without offering a single compromise," he said.



The core issue dividing the two sides is height. Developers argue they need buildings taller than 100 meters (328 feet) to make the project viable. Preservation authorities insist that nothing along Jongno should exceed 55 meters to maintain the view. Critics say supertall towers would benefit developers at the expense of heritage. But if height is restricted, what workable plan exists? Former mayor Park Won-soon's "urban regeneration" project failed. Simply opposing redevelopment for 20 years raises the question of whether heritage advocates are effectively saying, "As long as Jongmyo remains untouched, it doesn't matter what happens to the surrounding...