결혼식장 탈의실에 카메라 설치 불법촬영…30대 사진기사 구속

A construction site in Nampo-myeon, Bukyeong-si, South Korea recently caught the attention with a 10 or so 13-story apartment buildings that stand out due to their dull color. The buildings, whose foundations were left untouched, were scattered with leftover bricks and only a few windows were visible on the upper floors. The site itself was overgrown with grass, giving off a more forested appearance rather than a residential one.

The man in charge of the site, Jang Seung-moon, revealed that a suicide had been found there in the past, and there are rumors that ghosts inhabit the area. He expressed his desire for the buildings to be either completed or demolished. This particular piece of land was once home to the Saro-apartment complex, a development of 1,230 units built on a 47,000 square meter plot for 30 years starting back in 1993.

However, due to the 1997 exchange rate crisis, the construction company went bankrupt and work halted in May of the following year. Since then, the site has been repeatedly taken over by other construction companies, but all attempts to resume work have failed.

Currently, the building owner, the Jeonghyeong-savings bank, is attempting to sell the land through the state-backed liquidation process after the bank itself went bankrupt in 2013. Despite their best efforts, the liquidation process has failed multiple times, with the lowest bid being 60 billion won despite previous attempts reaching 180 billion won.

The Bukyeong City Office is currently preparing 100 billion won in funds over the next five years to address these abandoned construction sites through their "Bukyeong City Abandoned Construction Project Remedy and Fund Establishment and Operation Act." However, it is believed that the 120 billion won needed to demolish the Saro-apartment complex alone is beyond the scope of this fund, as it will likely require cooperation from the provincial government.

No clear signs of successful bid negotiations for the Saro-apartment complex have been found, as four attempts at bidding have been made but none have resulted in a successful purchase.