It is a district of Seoul made famous by a viral hit that swept the world two years ago. Now Gangnam is at the center of a row between officials who want to turn it into something of a theme park and the local traders who fear their businesses will be threatened by a garish facelift.
On a drive to attract more foreign tourists to Gangnam, Mayor Shin Yeon-hee plans to turn the area into a Korean-pop-music-themed “global luxury district,” complete with a K-Star Road and guides highlighting sites that have featured in popular music videos and TV shows.
She hopes it will compare with Abbey Road and Rome’s Piazza di Spagna as an area rich in pop-cultural heritage.
Photo: AFP
For vendors such as Lee Seon-ja, the plan is disastrous. Lee has run a street food stall in Seoul’s Gangnam District for the past 10 years, long before the area was made famous by Psy’s hit single, her garish orange tent standing out against the gray concrete skyscrapers.
A steady stream of customers approach, placing orders for deep-fried hot dogs and ddeokbokki, a signature Korean street dish of rice cakes served swimming in thick red-pepper sauce. After ordering, one young woman says she has no cash.
“That’s OK,” Lee tells her. “You can come back and pay me later.”
Lee fears this way of life is threatened by the mayor’s plan. The council has hired men to remove the vendors by force, saying they do not have permits to operate on the streets.
Their plight became public earlier this year when videos of food carts being knocked over appeared on YouTube.
Lee says she lost four carts last month and is in debt from having to replace all her equipment and support her family.
“To be honest, I’m desperate,” she said. “I wish I could find some other way of making a living, but I have no other skills.”
Lee and the other vendors say they would like to be a part of the area’s K-pop facelift.
“We’ve tried working with the government. We said we’d renovate our carts to make them look nicer, but they won’t listen,” he said.
Chopping sesame leaves to be used in topping for ddeokbokki, Lee argues that street food stalls have long been part of Korean culture and should not be brushed aside: “We’re a part of Gangnam too.”
(Lee Seon-ja’s name has been changed.)
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not