Sewoon redevelopment faces fresh heritage review after two-year stalemate near Jongmyo Shrine

Heritage authorities will reconsider a plan to preserve Joseon-era relics, a key step before construction can begin at the contested site in central Seoul.

A view of Sewoon District 4 in Jongno District, central Seoul on Dec. 12, 2025. The area has been at the center of controversy over a high-rise redevelopment project across from Jongmyo Shrine, a Unesco World Heritage site. NEWS1

Seoul's stalled Sewoon District 4 redevelopment could clear a major hurdle this week, as heritage authorities prepare to resume deliberation on how to preserve Joseon-era relics discovered at the site. 

Korea Heritage Service's Subcommittee on Buried Cultural Properties will review a preservation plan for relics uncovered at the Sewoon District 4 redevelopment site near Jongmyo Shrine during its fourth session to take place on Wednesday at the Government Complex Daejeon, according to recently released committee materials. 

The meeting would mark the first time the Sewoon District 4 issue has come before the Korea Heritage Committee in two years and seven months, since the site's preservation plan was tabled, and the case has languished amid a deepening institutional standoff between the Seoul city government and heritage authorities. 

The agenda item was submitted by Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation (SH), the project's implementing agency, and concerns whether and how to preserve traces of a Joseon-era imun (a symbolic village-entrance marker) and related structural remains, along with an entire northern drainage channel, excavated at 81 Yeji-dong, Jongno District.

SH had previously conducted excavation surveys from 2022 to 2024 and submitted a preservation plan for the major buried heritage found, but the plan was tabled during deliberation in January 2024. The Cultural Heritage Committee — the predecessor body that handled the review at the time — requested that SH submit a more concrete preservation plan at a later date.

According to the meeting materials, SH's new proposal calls for relocating and preserving the major buried heritage items and creating a "Heritage Plaza" (translated) on the basement level to display materials related to the excavated relics.

Under the current Act on Protection and Investigation of Buried Heritage, a project's implementing agency must establish an appropriate preservation plan for any high-value buried heritage discovered during excavation surveys. No construction can proceed on the site until the Korea Heritage Committee completes its deliberation and the Korea Heritage Service administrator formally confirms the excavation survey is complete.

Foreign tourists walk inside the Jongmyo Shrine in Jongno District, central Seoul, on July 13. YONHAP

SH must clear this deliberation to complete the preliminary steps required before construction can begin. However, since the Korea Heritage Committee was recently reorganized and the Buried Heritage Subcommittee has new members, the agenda item will need to be reviewed from the beginning — meaning a conclusion may not be reached at this month's meeting.

The review comes amid an ongoing standoff between the central government and the Seoul city government over the Sewoon District 4 redevelopment. In June, shortly after his party's defeat in the local elections, the outgoing Jongno District chief, a member of the opposition People Power Party, personally drafted and approved a revision to the Sewoon District 4 project implementation plan on June 18, which was then published in the Jongno District gazette the following day.

The revision raised the maximum building height along the Cheonggyecheon Stream side from 71.8 meters (235.6 feet) to 141.9 meters and separately raised the Jongno-side building height from 54 meters to 98.7 meters.

In response, the newly elected Jongno District chief, part of the ruling Democratic Party, ordered a halt to the permitting process after taking office following the June 3 local elections.

BY KANG HYE-RAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]