A concert in Yongsan Park in 2027

While the people have been fed up with bad news about President Park Geun-hye for more than a month, good news about the proposed Yongsan Park in Seoul early this week was a consolation.

The good news featured the government’s decision to make the park a history- and ecology-friendly resting place for citizens by scrapping an earlier plan to build eight big structures in the park precincts as demanded by various ministries.

Until the early 1980s, ordinary Koreans had little knowledge of Central Park in New York City, an oasis that functions as the city’s “green lung.”

It was in September 1981 when New York City’s proud and historical landmark got to draw the interest of Koreans thanks to American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, who held a free benefit concert there in front of more than 500,000 people.

Eleven years later in 1992, Central Park was again introduced to Koreans as well as global moviegoers by the American Christmas comedy film, “Home Alone 2,” as the lead character Kevin, played by Macaulay Culkin, encountered a homeless woman tending to pigeons there.

Watching the pair’s performance before such a big crowd at the park on TV, many Koreans, including myself, were envious of such a fantastic green place in the middle of Manhattan.

I had a chance to see Central Park in September 1985, recalling the 1981 Simon & Garfunkel concert, on my way to Ottawa, Canada, to cover the then IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) session and to have an exclusive interview with the then Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Walking in the park in front of the plaza early in the autumnal morning with one of my friends living in New Jersey, I could not but be impressed by the fresh air in the park in such a big city.

And I thought of the Hyde Park in London, Stanley Park in Vancouver, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Ueno Park in Tokyo.

My friend asked, “Why don’t we have such parks in Seoul?”

I joked, “Don’t worry. Though we don’t have such big parks, we have millions of Parks (I am one of them) here, there and everywhere. Don’t we?”

The site of Yongsan Park is very special historically for Koreans since it has been occupied by foreign troops as a strategic point leading to the heart of the capital city. In the 13th century, the Mongolian army used it as its logistics base during its invasion of the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392). During the Japanese colonial rule of Korea (1910-1945), the site was the base of Japanese Army headquarters.

Since the ceasefire of the Korean War (1950-1953), the Eighth U.S. Army has been using the location as its headquarters.

After numerous rounds of talks stretching decades, South Korea and the U.S. agreed in 2004 to move the U.S. military headquarters to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and six years later they decided to complete the relocation by 2017.

Seoul City Hall plans to start construction work to create a park there from next year following the withdrawal of American troops and to complete it by 2027.

What a gift to Seoul citizens who have no such a park like Central Park, so far!

With regard to the government’s decision not to build new structures in the projected Yongsan Park they temporarily named it “Yongsan State Park,” and for this Seoul City Hall deserves kudos.

Ten years ago in 2006, City Hall vowed to turn the Yongsan base area into a park larger than London’s Hyde Park when U.S. troops move out. But they faced an unexpected difficulty in pushing ahead with the initial plan to fully use the 3.58 square kilometers of land due to ministries’ “greed” to use some of the land.

With the full support of citizens and experts, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon strongly demanded in June that the ministries give up their plan to utilize space on the site.

Not to speak of Park’s remarks and experts’ opinion, the projected Yongsan Park should be a natureand ecological-friendly place and a city landmark like Central Park, which was designated in 1962 as a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior.

Stanley Park in Vancouver could be a good example as Yongsan Park borders downtown of Seoul and can be a green oasis in the mega city of 10 million population.

One of the most important values of Yongsan Park is its role as a green lung for citizens. It is a fortune for Seoul citizens to have such a vast green zone in the “concrete jungle” like that of Central Park for New Yorkers in Manhattan.

Another important point the landscape architects and city officials have to keep in mind during the construction work is how to preserve the historical value of the Yongsan area.

There are a number of historical and cultural resources in the region, including facilities the Japanese and U.S. military had used, many of which can be candidates for world cultural heritage of UNESCO, like Wisu Prison operated by the Japanese military police during the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula.

It will be something like teaching a fish to swim to say that Yongsan Park should be made with a farsighted view. It’s just pleasant for me to imagine the kind of Simon & Garfunkel concert not in a stadium or gym, but in Yongsan Park in 2027 and thereafter.