Fracas turns violent at golf course next to Incheon Airport

Hundreds of people clashed violently at a golf course on Yeongjong Island in Incheon Tuesday after a local court ordered the seizure of the property.

Protestors block the entrance of the SKY72 Golf & Resort on Yeongjong Island in Incheon on Tuesday morning by spraying fire extinguishers, refusing to return the land to the Incheon International Airport Corporation. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Hundreds of people clashed violently at a golf course on Yeongjong Island in Incheon Tuesday after a local court ordered the seizure of the property.

SKY72, the operator of a golf course built on airport property where a new runway will be constructed, refused to vacate despite the fact that its lease expired on Dec. 31, 2020.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, agents of the Incheon District Court moved in to seize the SKY72 Golf & Resort but met resistance from some 500 people hired by the resort armed with fire extinguishers and water cannons.

The agents of the court numbered 600.

Around a thousand members of a conservative civic group joined in the fracas on the resort's side. The clash continued through to the afternoon.

Around 300 police were dispatched to the scene in the morning and eight people were arrested Tuesday afternoon for disrupting the seizing procedure.

Some in the protest were injured and a few members of the civic group were sent to the hospital.

People fight over a court order to seize the SKY72 Golf & Resort in Incheon on Tuesday morning. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The district court had warned SKY72 that it would seize the property if wasn't returned to the Incheon International Airport Corporation by Dec. 29.

The Supreme Court ruled last December that SKY72 should vacate and return the land to the airport corporation.

SKY72 leased the land through 2020, the year an airport runway was expected to be built. But when construction of the runway was postponed, the company argued it had the right to operate the golf course until the date for the runway construction was fixed.

It also objected to another company, KMH Shilla Leisure, being appointed the new manager of the resort by the airport company. It said there was no such condition in the contract that the facility could be handed over to another company .

“Our right to operate the golf course after investing 260 billion won ($209 million) has been stolen by another company,” a spokesperson from SKY72 said regarding the decision in 2020.

SKY72 had revenues of 92.3 billion won from the golf course in 2022, the highest since it started operation in 2005.

Seventeen proprietors of stores and restaurants at the golf course also filed a lawsuit on Dec. 26 to exclude their facilities from getting seized.

Incheon International Airport Corporation plans to sue the city government of Incheon if it does not help cancel the business registration of the current golf course and add KMH Shilla Leisure as the new operator.

BY LEE SU-MIN, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]