Redevelopment across from Jongmyo hits roadblock as heritage panel sends preservation plan back

The Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation must modify its proposal to preserve artifacts found at the Sewoon District 4 site before construction can commence.

Large balloons float over the Sewoon District 4 site in central Seoul on Dec. 25, 2025, part of a simulation of how buildings planned for the site would affect the view from Jongmyo Shrine. YONHAP

Construction at a site across from Jongmyo Shrine in Jongno District, central Seoul, has once again hit a roadblock after a government heritage panel sent a plan to preserve archaeological artifacts back to the developer.

The Korea Heritage Service (KHS) said Thursday that the Buried Heritage Subcommittee of the National Heritage Committee had reviewed a plan for the Sewoon District 4 site a day earlier and did not approve it, finding that it needs to be revised.

The proposal was submitted by the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation (SH), a public company behind the project.

Korean law requires a developer to draw up an excavation and preservation plan for any buried heritage of high value found on the site. Until the heritage committee has ruled on that plan and the head of the KHS has certified that the excavation is complete, construction is halted.

SH first filed a preservation plan for the main finds at 81 Yeji-dong in Jongno District, unearthed in excavations between 2022 and 2024. That plan was sent back in January 2024 over what the committee called a lack of specific preservation measures.

The review that followed came two years and seven months later. This time, SH proposed preserving the main artifacts at another location and building a cultural heritage plaza on the first basement level to display findings from the dig.

Drilling at the Sewoon District 4 buried heritage excavation site in Jongno District, central Seoul, on March 16. KOREA HERITAGE SERVICE

"Once SH finishes revising its plan and submits a proposal that reflects and addresses the deficiencies, it will come back for another review," a KHS official said.

The previous head of Jongno District, from the opposition People Power Party, pushed an administrative revision in the plan through in his final weeks in office. He personally drafted and signed the revision on June 18, days after losing the local elections, and gazetted it in the district bulletin the following day.

The revision raises the maximum height of buildings along Cheonggyecheon from 71.8 meters (236 feet) to 141.09 meters, and along Jongno from 54 meters to 98.7 meters.

The new district head, from the Democratic Party, has ordered the permit process halted.

BY KANG HYE-RAN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]