hankyoreh

Yuk Young-soo. (by Kim Il-woo

“Park Chung-hee Road.” “Saemaeul Movement Theme Park.” It was around noon on Jan. 23, and signs were posted along the six-lane road in front of former President Park Chung-hee’s birth home in Sangmo, a neighborhood in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province.

“Park Chung-hee Road” is the name given to this road by the city of Gumi. Inside the Saemaeul Movement Theme Park, large buildings loomed to the right. Bearing the names “Exhibition Hall” and “Global Hall,” they flanked the marble-built Saemaeul Plaza. North of the plaza were a training center and an “eco/tree house.” A road led uphill to the west, where a 1970s-era neighborhood was recreated as the “Saemaeul Theme Village.”

except for cardboard cutouts of his Park and his wife

From the village, a road led south to a five-meter-high statue of Park. Engraved into the marble around the statue were a list of his achievements, a chronology, the National Education Charter, and the notes of the “Saemaeul Song.” The strains of that song could be heard playing around the statue. Further south of the statue, a construction sign was posted, explaining that the “Park Chung-hee Historical Library” was being built with a target completion date in June 2019. Such was the progress of “Park Chung-hee Town,” which spans a total area of 330,000 square meters.

At the time of Park’s death in 1979, only his birth home, main building, and memorial hall could be found in Sangmo. Together, they covered an area of just 754 square meters. It was in 2006 that memorial structures and installations first began appearing. Between 2006 and 2017, the city of Gumi and province of North Gyeongsang spent 28.6 billion won (US$26.9 million) on the development of a park around Park’s birth home. A Saemaeul Movement memorial garden and the “experience center for the pre-barley harvest period” (this was traditionally a time of hunger in rural Korea, when all of the crops that had been harvested in the fall were consumed, but the spring barley crop was not ready) were constructed at the time. The statue of Park was raised in 2011 at the suggestion of Gumi Mayor Nam Yu-jin, paid for with 600 million won (US$564,000) in contributions.

North Gyeongsang Province is empty

In 2012, Gumi spent 5.9 billion won (US$5.5 million) on a “President Park Chung-hee National Revival Hall.” In 2013, the city and province began building the Saemaeul Movement Theme Park at a cost of 87.9 billion won (US$82.6 million). Construction of the park finished on Dec. 31. Now only the Historical Library (20 billion won/US$18.8 million) is left to build before Park Chung-hee Town is complete. Over 142.4 billion won (US$133.9 million) has been spent to date, not including administration and upkeep costs.

Park Chung-hee Town may be taking its final shape, but the yearly operating costs remain extensive. A commissioned study showed a yearly operation price tag of 6 billion won (US$5.6 million) for the theme park. After building the park together, Gumi and North Gyeongsang Province each insisted that the other should bear the operating costs. Ultimately, they decided each would pay 500 million won (US$470,000) for this year. The amount does not include staffing costs – leading observers to predict the administrative expenses for both sides will snowball going ahead.

The front yard of former president Park Chung-hee’s birthplace in the Sangmo neighborhood of Gumi

“We’re hiring out for security and facility management, but it’s up to the city of Gumi to decide whether operation is going to handled directly or outsourced,” a North Gyeongsang Provincial official said.

A source with the city explained, “We haven’t outsourced management yet, and three city employees have been sent to work there for now. We’re doing our best to come up with programs to ensure the park is run well.”

Meanwhile, visits to Park Chung-hee Town have been dropping off. According to city statistics, the most visits to Park’s birth home was during daughter Park Geun-hye’s presidency in 2013, at 780,000. The number has been dwindling ever since, with 390,000 arriving in 2016, the Park Geun-hye/Choi Soon-sil scandal erupted. Last year, the total dropped to 260,000.

At around 2 pm on Jan. 23, few people could be seen around the home. The reporter finally managed to talk to a man in his seventies nearby. When asked for his thoughts on Park Chung-hee, the man paused for a few moments before saying, “If only the daughter had done half as well as the father. . . .” Two people left messages that day in the visitors’ book at the memorial hall next to Park’s birth home. One read, “May the leftist administration come to an end.”

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent

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