79. What’s wrong with that neighborhood?
“Korean Air’s Songhyeon-dong property? Oh, you mean by Gyeongbokgung Palace?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Still, Chairman Jang seems to know.
“Mr. Chairman, do you know?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve seen it in the news a few times.”
“Really?”
Is this land so famous that it’s been written about?
I gave him a curious look, and he began to answer.
“Mr. Chairman, you’re in the United States, so you probably don’t know much about it, but it’s been in the news for the past few years.”
“No, why? What’s the problem?”
“Because the land is owned by Korean Air.”
“What does it have to do with Korean Air owning the land?”
“Because the actual landowner was famous for his peanuts.”
“Peanuts? What peanuts?”
Why does peanuts come up here?
Are you telling me that Jimmy Carter, the president of the United States, was famous for—. Ah! Peanuts?
“The peanut? The peanut that’s famous for being a jerk?”
“hahahaha! Yes, that’s right, the famous peanut.”
“And the peanut is the actual owner?”
“Well, in the succession plan of Korean Air Group, it was organized internally that the eldest daughter, Peanut Joo-na, would take over the hotel business, so she has been in charge of the hotel and in-flight business of Korean Air Group for a long time.”
It’s kind of funny to say “Peanut Joo-na”.
It’s not like Dosan Ahn Chang-ho or Wudang Yi Ho-young, and it’s not like Poison Sword or Fengyeom.
Ms. Peanut Jooona?
“So?”
“So, she was actually in charge of the development of the site, although it fell through because there were too many problems.”
“What’s wrong with it that it can’t be developed?”
“Well, let me start with the history of the land.”
“History? You have a history? And how do you know so much about the land? Did you just memorize it off the top of your head?”
“hahahaha! That’s right, the land was originally a private castle. You probably know the history as well as the backstory, because you were the one in charge of selling that land.”
“Ah—.”
Somehow, she knew too much.
“Anyway, to tell you the history. As you can see from its location next to Gyeongbokgung Palace, it is indeed a land that has shared the history of our country’s glory. Originally, it was a land right next to the royal palace where the royal family and the Sedoga family lived. Then, when it was controlled by the Japanese, it was used as a banker’s quarters for the Japanese Food and Agricultural Bank.”
“Ah—.”
“Then it was liberated again, and this time the American troops came in where the Japanese left, and after the American troops left, it became the quarters for the American embassy staff.”
“…”
I finally understood what Team Leader Cho was talking about when he said that this is a land that has shared the history of Korea’s glory.
Now that the country has fallen, the land next to the walls of the royal palace, where the royal family used to live, has been occupied by foreign powers one after another.
What a shame.
“That land came into the hands of Sasung Life in 1997, at a price of 140 billion won at the time.”
“Why did Sasung buy the land?”
“It was supposed to be developed into a complex cultural facility, and I know they were planning to build an art museum. At least Sasung wasn’t planning on building a full-fledged for-profit facility there.”
“Then why didn’t they build it and sell it to Corian?”
“Because they couldn’t develop it.”
“Really? And why? It’s not like you were going to build some kind of weird building.”
“Here’s the key, here’s the fun part, that land, it’s a real pain in the ass, hahahahaha!”
“Ying?”
A private castle giving up on development?
“It’s a highly regulated area. It’s zoned Class 1 residential, so you can’t even think about putting any kind of facility in there, and the height is four stories at best, and you can’t even build above that.”
“Wow, that’s what the land was like?”
“That’s all the land they’ve got.”
“What else is there?”
“Right next door are Pungmun Girls’ High School and Deoksung Girls’ Middle and High School. At least Pungmun Girls’ High School moved a while ago, but Deoksung Girls’ Middle and High School is still right there, so it’s designated as a protected area under the Act on the Protection of the Educational Environment. Now you can see how heavily regulated and constrained this land is.”
“hahahaha! It’s completely overlapped, isn’t it?”
“hahahaha, yeah.”
But if it’s an art museum, I don’t think anyone’s going to say no to building that, right?
It’s kind of a public good.
“Still, if it was a private castle, wouldn’t it have been okay to build an art museum?”
“You’re only saying that because you don’t know the size of the land. It’s very large. It’s 37,141 square meters, which is almost 12,000 square meters.”
“It’s that big?”
“Yes, it’s vast. It’s probably the only piece of land left in the middle of the city that’s vacant, so why not just build an art museum on that large piece of land? They wanted to build a cultural complex, including an art museum.”
“I see.”
“This was before I joined the company, so I don’t know the details, but it would have been possible if they had pushed for it privately, but even then, public opinion wasn’t good because of the illegal inheritance to Vice Chairman Lee, and the government didn’t look kindly on it, so they just gave up and bought it for 290 billion won because they thought it was good for Corian.”
“hahahaha—. That’s crazy.”
It is indeed a land where nothing can be done unless it is a development of a completely public nature.
“But knowing that, why did you buy it from Korean, you must have known that?”
“He must have been confident. Sasung was forced to abandon the development due to inheritance issues, but they thought they could make it happen.”
“Did he also try to build a museum?”
“That’s really funny. On top of that, they were going to build a seven-star hotel.”
“What? A hotel? Right next to Gyeongbokgung Palace? Are they crazy?”
“I was going to build my own hanok hotel, but yes, it’s crazy.”
I thought the things they were doing were funny, but not just funny, but crazy?
I mean, building a hotel next to Gwanghwamun?
With a girls’ middle school and a girls’ high school separated by a single wall?
“This is something I’ve been thinking about lately, but I think Joon-na was greedy, not just for the hotel, but for the whole group, and she was trying to impress her father by succeeding in something so difficult, that the successor is me, not my brother.”
“That’s some crazy stuff, huh?”
“Somehow, some way, I managed to get a hotel built there. The Supreme Court said no, so I begged a VIP, who is now in a cold place, to let me build it in the Cheong Wa Dae chaebol, and when that didn’t work, I tried to move the National Assembly to change the law.”
“Eh? The National Assembly?”
“Yes, I asked them to exclude tourist accommodations without entertainment facilities from the regulation because I would build it without entertainment facilities, and I actually proposed a bill, which of course failed to pass.”
“Wow! That’s great! The people who want to change the law to build a hotel, and the lawmakers who moved it!”
This is really going too far, isn’t it?
It’s ridiculous.
Cho Chul-bong laughed bitterly at my reaction.
“Well, I’m a chaebol myself, but this time, Korean Air Group’s behavior was a bit too much. In the past, there was nothing wrong with sleeping with the regime, but in the 21st century, at least, it’s unacceptable. Nowadays, even if you do sleep with the regime, you do it tastefully, but Korean Air was completely staged. Even among ourselves, we were gossiping behind our backs, so it came out that she was trying to eat the group.”
“What’s wrong with that corner of the house, I thought it was always noisy?”
“That’s what was always being said.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s get married really well. If the wrong woman comes into the house, she’ll destroy the whole house.”
“Ah—.”
Well, as far as I’m concerned, it’s that rice on that herb.
“But do you mean to say that we don’t mind the land, and that the Corian will give it away?”
“We don’t mind at all, and it’s in line with what the city of Seoul is planning to do with the land.”
“Seoul?”
“Yes, the Seoul Metropolitan Government wants to buy the land and turn it into a park, so they’re actively asking us to sell it to them, and we’re not responding.”
“Why isn’t he selling? Is he still holding onto it?”
“Why would they have a grudge? After all the trouble he’s been through in recent years?”
“But why?”
“Because they’re not paying the right price for the land.”
“Oh!”
That’s not nice, even for a public cause.
“Either way, we’re one hundred percent. We’re honoring a national hero. Besides, it’s a big piece of land, so we can use only a small part of it and turn the rest into a park.”
“But how much would the land cost? Even if it’s a restricted piece of land, it’s in a great location, and it’s so big, it’s not going to be cheap, is it?”
“The market value is currently between 500 billion and 600 billion.”
“Hmmm—.”
There’s a lot of money invested in Korea these days, so it’s a bit overwhelming.
Considering the cost of the land and the construction costs.
Still, I have to do what I can.
“So the Koreans are definitely selling land?”
“One hundred percent, because the situation within the Korean group is not good these days.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Didn’t you know that there’s a management dispute between the eldest peanut, Joo Ju-na, and her younger brother, Joo Yang-tae?”
“Really? What about their father?”
“He died a few months ago.”
“Huh? I thought he wasn’t old enough to die?”
“I don’t know if it’s because my family is rotten to the core, but he died rather suddenly.”
“Huh!”
“That’s why I know that Joo Yang-tae is trying to sell the Songhyeon-dong property to erase any trace of his sister, Joo Ju-na, from the group. Things aren’t going so well for the Korean Group, and he needs the money, so if the price is right, he’ll sell it 100%, and that piece of land is so big it won’t even sell.”
So there’s nothing stopping him?
“Okay, fine, I’ll give you full access, so you go ahead and do it.”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, but do you intend to use the entire land? It’s too big to just use as a memorial for Dr. Wudang Lee and his brothers?”
“I actually only need half of it, because I’m planning to build a memorial for Dr. Hoe-young Lee and the brothers and a memorial for General Kim Hong-il.”
“General Kim Hong-il? Who is General Kim Hong-il?”
“No, you don’t know General Kim Hong-il? An anti-Japanese independence fighter and a hero of the Korean War, one of the four heroes of the Korean War officially selected by the Ministry of National Defense?”
“I don’t know?”
“Huh—.”
“…”
Look at this.
This is why I want to build a memorial.
This is General Kim Hong-il, who is strangely unrecognized by the people.
If you ask young people on the street, you won’t find many of them who are Udang Lee Hoe-young.