Cultural Properties Committee cancels plan to build Kyongju racecourse

A plan to build a racecourse in Mulchon-ri, Sonkok-dong, Kyongju City, North Kyongsang province, which had been a controversial issue for more than five years, finally has been abolished, and the planned site will de designated as historical relics. And, the Korea Exchange Bank and the reconstruction site of the Mirae Village Housing Association in Poongnaptosung in Songpa-gu, Seoul, will be designated as historical sites for preservation.

The Cultural Properties Committee (Chairman Koh Byong-Ik) made these decisions at a meeting held at the National Cultural Properties Research Center in Kyongbok Palace in Seoul on Thursday.

Experts in the cultural circle appraise that this decision will be a turning point of the preservation for cultural properties, which have been exposed to be defenseless, yielding to development priorities.

¡°As the cultural properties are unable to be restored again if they are damaged once, we should preserve them to the maximum and hand down them to our descendants,¡± Prof. Choi Young-Hee of Hallym University, a member of the committee who attended the meeting, said. ¡°We have decided to preserve the site for the construction of a racecourse and the reconstruction site in Poongnaptosung as they were proved as historical relics with high academic value in the study of Shilla and Paekjae histories according to the excavation results.¡±

Under the decision, 265,000 pyong out of the total 290,000-pyong site for a racecourse has been designated as historical relics, and all construction activities in the area will be banned. Accordingly, a new site is needed for the construction of a racecourse, or the plan itself should be abolished. All construction activities in the reconstruction site in Poongnaptosung also will be prohibited.

Lee Kwawg-Pyo kplee@donga.com