Yeonsu District Urges Relocation of Used-Car Export Complex After "15 Years of Resident Harm"

Incheon's Yeonsu District has launched a large-scale crackdown to root out vehicles involved in illegal activities around the used-car export complex.

On July 7, Yeonsu District carried out a large-scale joint campaign and intensive crackdowns by region, bringing together a resident monitoring group, police and district officials. District Chief Lee Jae-ho, about 100 members of the resident monitoring group, the Yeonsu Police Station and district government officials took part at the site to crack down on vehicles engaged in illegal activities.

The crackdown will continue through July 10. Yeonsu District has designated this period as the "Intensive Crackdown Period on Vehicles Engaged in Illegal Activities at the Used-Car Export Complex" and plans to resolve resident inconvenience caused by illegal activities involving vehicles connected to the export complex.

Lee issued a statement that day urging the Incheon Metropolitan Government and the Incheon Port Authority to swiftly prepare measures to relocate the used-car export complex, in order to resolve resident harm that has continued for 15 years.

Yeonsu District established a "Plan to Strengthen Crackdowns on Deregistered (Unplated) Vehicles" in 2022, followed by the formation in 2023 of a resident monitoring group in which residents participate directly in surveillance, building an active monitoring system. The district also achieved an institutional improvement, shortening the guidance period for the forced processing of vehicles abandoned on back roads from the previous two months to 10 days.

Through such efforts, the number of habitually abandoned vehicles along the main road near Neungheodae Park has decreased. However, as some vehicles that evaded the crackdown moved into nearby residential areas, back roads and vacant lots, new complaints have continued over parking shortages and pedestrian safety.

In the second half of this year, Yeonsu District plans to expand the designation of tow storage facilities to build up its enforcement infrastructure and to speed up the resolution of resident inconvenience through prompt towing of vehicles engaged in illegal activities.

"To fundamentally resolve the problem, relocating the used-car export complex is absolutely necessary," Lee said. "We will concentrate all our administrative capacity on creating a safe and clean Yeonsu District free of illegal vehicles, with citizens, government and police united as one."