Justification Needed
Kangwon Land officially stated on August 9 that it is opposed to the establishment of a casino in the Saemangeum region open to South Koreans.
It pointed out that situations in the abandoned mine area in the Gangwon Province and Saemangeum differ from each other. “The Kangwon Land Casino was inevitable for the livelihood of more than 300,000 people in the region who lost their jobs as a result of the government-led restructuring of the mining industry,” it explained, adding, “Although the Saemangeum Project is drifting now, a casino in the region cannot be justified in that it entails huge detrimental and intangible effects and the original purpose of the project is farmland supply.”
It also expressed concerns over the possibility of populist legislation. “This issue has a complete lack of national consensus and policy demand and current attempts to build a casino in the region are not that different from those of some local governments and interest groups that tried in the past to do so in a populist way,” it went on to say.
This is the first time that Kangwon Land made an official statement on the issue of a casino in a region other than the province. On the previous day, in the meantime, four civic organizations in the province agreed to respond to the issue together.