2024-04-19 05:36:00
The statue of King Sunjong, the last king of the Joseon Dynasty, erected at a cost of 700 million won at Dalseong Park in Jung-gu, Daegu in 2017, will be removed following 7 years. As apartment complexes were built nearby and the floating population increased, civilian complaints were continually filed that the statue impeded residents’ walking and threatened traffic safety. After the statue’s removal, an additional 400 million won is expected to be invested in road maintenance. Some therefore say that taxpayers’ money was wasted.
Daegu Jung-gu announced on the 19th that members of the public sculpture deliberation committee for the removal of the King Sunjong statue had unanimously decided to demolish it.
This statue was erected as a symbolic building in the process of creating the 2.1 km stretch from Suchang-dong in Ingyo-dong to Jung-gu, Daegu, where King Sunjong visited in 1909, under the name “Emperor Sunjong Road”. Of the 7 billion won project cost invested in the entire Emperor Sunjongjegagil section, 700 million won was used to create the statue. The goal was to revitalize the city by discovering local tourism resources and increasing the number of visitors and floating population.
However, local civic groups and scholars opposed the statue from the start. The purpose of King Sunjong’s march to Daegu was that it was planned by Japanese leaders, including Hirobumi Ito, to break the will of the volunteer soldiers who were fighting once morest Japanese colonial rule at the time, and that he did not was not a historical event worthy of commemoration. .
It was also pointed out that King Sunjong’s appearance wearing the royal ceremonial uniform was also different from the uniform of the time. At the time, Jung-gu explained: “The road and the statue of King Sunjong have meaning as a dark visit (returning to the site of tragic history) that reflects the history of humiliation. We have also included an image of King Sunjong. wearing a Prussian uniform in the nearby wall mural.
However, over the past seven years, local residents have not welcomed the statue of King Sunjong either. In the meantime, more than 3,000 apartments and other apartment complexes were built near Dalseong Park, and as the morning market became more active, the floating population and vehicle traffic increased. As pedestrians and lanes became narrow due to the statue of King Sunjong occupying the middle of the road in front of the main entrance to Dalseong Park, residents and business owners filed a complaint, demanding “to remove the statue that threatens road safety “.
Finally, Jung-gu established the “Dalseong Toseong Entrance Road Environmental Maintenance Project Implementation Plan” earlier this month. After removing the statue by the 26th, we plan to spend 400 million won to improve the road by the end of the year. Jung-gu plans to expand the two-lane entrance road to Dalseong Park to four lanes out and back as it was originally, following removing the statue. Adding up the cost of assembling the statue, the cost of restoring it to its original state is equivalent to 1.1 billion won.
When this news became known, Sunjong’s descendants requested that the statue be given to Jung-gu, Daegu. The idea is to move the statue to where it can have meaning instead of tearing it down. Lee Jun, president of the King Uichin Memorial Society, said in a statement: “Rather than saying that the later monarchs of the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean imperial family, who clearly represent our history, were created for tourism products and destroyed, we must select the optimal location for moving” and “Huijeongdang to Changdeokgung Palace”. “The statue will be moved to the square in front of the royal tomb of the Joseon Dynasty, or if there is no place to move it, the descendants of the imperial family will take it there,” he said. -he declares.
Cho Gwang-hyeon, secretary-general of the Daegu Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, said: “If historical figures or events are unilaterally converted into tourism resources, the waste of social and economic costs might increase. A social consensus is necessary.” he said.
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