▲ This photo, shows Chung Moon-hun, chief of Seoul's Jongno Ward speaking during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at his office in the ward on July 27, 2022. (Yonhap)

 

▲ This photo, shows Chung Moon-hun, chief of Seoul's Jongno Ward speaking during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at his office in the ward on July 27, 2022. (Yonhap)

 

▲ This photo, shows Chung Moon-hun, chief of Seoul's Jongno Ward speaking during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at his office in the ward on July 27, 2022. (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, August 1 (Yonhap) -- "70% of Seoul's cultural assets are located in Jongno. Since Jongno is a place that is inevitably a place of history and culture, we have to push forward with it."

Chung Moon-hun, chief of Seoul's Jongno Ward, said in an interview with Yonhap News on July 27, one month after his inauguration on July 1.

The purpose is to highlight Jongno as a "main culture street" as much as "main political street," which was the representative modifier of Jongno in the past, has expired in the era of the Yongsan presidential office.

"Culture and art are the new growth engine of the 21st century," chief Chung emphasized the creation of a cultural tourism belt.

"It will be a cultural belt if I start a tour in Pyeongchang-dong, stop by the Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art, which will open in the future, and see artists working at the nearby 'Outside Cultural Forum'. After that, I'd pass by the Bugaksan Mountain to go to Cheong Wa Dae following the visit of the Literary Museum of Yun Dong-ju the Poet."

Saying that it would not be a tour where it visits important places just by car, he emphasized, "it will be expanded from a point to a line, a line to a plane." It will be a walking tourism belt. 

"Cheong Wa Dae must be added as a part of the cultural tourism belt and be utilized," he said, regarding Cheong Wa Dae which is currently in controversy over its management. "I think it's right for Jongno to manage Cheong Wa Dae."

"Insa-dong must smell like tradition and history," he commented concerning the revitalization of Insa-dong, which is losing its reputation due to its improper development. "Recently, I came across the idea of adding traditional lights on the streets of Insa-dong. I think it would be great to start there."

As for the future of Tapgol Park, he suggested that it would be necessary to remove the protection glass surrounding the Wongaksa Pagoda, and also tear down the fence surrounding the park for a "park that civilians can enjoy."

 

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)

 

 

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