Suddenly, a beehive was built and a tree garden anywhere… A village in Cheongju that is rags

In the afternoon of the 11th, the entrance to the top village in Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk. As I entered the village, about 20 white prefabricated houses stood out. It was a so-called’honeycomb’ whose outer wall was made of sandwich panels. The prefabricated houses of about 60m2 were spread out from the entrance to the village to the bottom of the mountain ridge. On one side, the work of building houses or planting landscape trees was in full swing. An official from a nearby real estate agency said, “These houses with a living room/kitchen and a room on a paneled outer wall are most likely built to receive compensation without real people living there.”

The number of beehives that entered this place reached 50 to 60 in total, 20 or so per block. A large truck carrying trees was seen moving constantly along the narrow road. Resident aunt, 84, said, “Since July of last year, dozens of trucks have been in and out of the house and piled up dirt and built houses. It is said that the front of Mr. Lee’s house was originally a steep field where peppers and green onions were grown. Lee’s house is now in a lowered state due to the high build-up while building the prefabricated house.

The Chungbuk Development Corporation plans to build the’Nextpolis Industrial Complex’ by 2028 on the 1.891574m2 (570,000 pyeong) site in this area including the top village. The total project cost amounted to 854 billion won. Residents of the village said, “As soon as the industrial complex construction plan was approved by the Chungbuk-do Council in June of last year, a’beehive’ began to be built.”

Most of the houses built like this did not live. Another resident’s aunt (71) said, “The neighborhood became rags because foreigners who obtained the development plan built beehives,” and said, “It seems like a planned speculative act aimed at compensation money.” Cheongwon-gu, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongwon-gu, where Nextpolis will be built, are remote villages with only 10 building permits per year. However, from the beginning of last year when the industrial complex plan became known, until August 22, the year when Cheongju City restricted the permission for development activities, the number of cases exploded 20 times to 200.

In the village, there were also many densely planted tree fields. Although they are old, there were date palm trees, birch trees, and pine trees with their branches cut off. Even the rice fields in the middle of the village were covered with soil and trees were planted with a length of 4 to 5 meters. These trees had no gaps of about 1m. One resident said, “In August of last year, many people planted trees at random after renting mountains and fields.” “One landlord rented rice paddies at the border of the planned development area and planted a lot of trees. “It is an act aimed at rewarding trees, but the city is neglecting speculation.”

Chungbuk-do decided to investigate speculative behavior related to the development of the 3rd Osong Life Science National Industrial Complex (10.2 million㎡), including Nextpolis, and the Eumseong Maengdong and Ingok Industrial Complex (1.71 million㎡). The targets are Chungbuk Development Corporation executives and staff members (76) who are in charge of the development of Nextpolis and Eumseong Ingok Industrial Complex, and public officials belonging to the Bioindustry Bureau (47) and the Economic and Trade Bureau (100), which are departments related to the Osong 3 Industrial Complex development project.

Chungbuk-do predicts that the total survey targets will reach 1,000 people, including the families of public officials and construction workers who have worked from five years before the official announcement of the location of these industrial complexes to the present day. An official in the Chungbuk-do inspector’s office said, “If the investigation results in an unfair land transaction, we plan to ask the police for an investigation.”

Cheongju = Reporter Choi Jong-kwon [email protected]