Plan to set up large flag pole in central Seoul postponed due to bureaucracy

The central government`s plan to install a 70-meter-tall pole for the national flag at the Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul in time with the August 15 National Liberation Day will be postponed until next month due to administrative delays. In June, the Ministry of Patriots` and Veterans` Affairs and the Seoul Metropolitan Government signed an agreement on the flag pole, announcing a plan to hold a high-profile flag-hoisting ceremony on the National Liberation Day, to which prominent guests and people`s representatives will be invited.

The ministry and the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday that they are still going through administrative procedures just a day before the National Liberation Day. After the June announcement, it took them more than two months to collect public opinion, hold advisory committee meetings and go through Seoul`s sculpture review board. Currently, they are waiting for a review by a Seoul committee regulating the use of public squares.

The two agencies said there were no particular stumbling blocks hindering the project. After all, they ended up failing to meet the deadline by announcing the plan before thoroughly figuring out the time required for going through the administrative procedures. A ministry official admitted that the 400 million won (340,541 U.S. dollars) in June after reaching a final agreement on the project in late May. "The schedule was too tight from the beginning," the official said. A Seoul city official noted that detailed timetable had not been coordinated until after the agreement was reached, adding the city also tried not to hurriedly carry out the plan. The two government organizations plan to complete the installation before September 28, the 65th anniversary of the recovery of Seoul during the 1950-1953 Korean War.

hic@donga.com