A public facility built with more than 5 billion won in taxpayer money has sat abandoned under weeds for more than a decade. The building is a youth training center in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, that could neither be sold nor used and has deteriorated into a derelict structure.
Hoengseong County said on the 7th that the prolonged neglect of the Hoengseong County Youth Training Center, located in Byeongjibang-ri, Gapcheon-myeon, has sparked controversy over administrative failure. The county spent about 5.17 billion won in 2002 to build the center on an 18,000-square-meter site with a total floor area of 5,400 square meters. It was a large facility capable of accommodating 500 people at a time.
But disputes arose over outsourcing the center's operation to a private operator after it opened, escalating into legal action, and operations were halted entirely in 2013. In 2015, following court-ordered mediation, the site's designation as a youth facility was scrapped.
Plans to repurpose the property followed, including an attempt to bring in a training center for the Korea Freedom Federation, but none materialized. For more than 10 years, the building has been left covered in weeds and shrubs, and its deterioration and damage have become severe.
Disposing of the property has also proved difficult. Hoengseong County set an appraised value in the range of 2 billion won and put the property up for sale, but the auction failed to draw bids on multiple occasions. A facility built with nearly 5.2 billion won in public funds has, within a decade, become a derelict building that cannot be sold even for 2 billion won. If the sale falls through, the county will have to spend additional money on demolition.
Calls are growing in the region for scrutiny of whether the feasibility study was adequate and whether administrative judgment was flawed in halting operations and leaving the site unattended for years.
Critics say the county should not simply repeat cycles of neglect and failed sale attempts, but must clearly explain to residents a practical plan for the site — including demolition or reuse — and who bears responsibility for the wasted budget.
