[Anchor]
Ahead of the fireworks festival tomorrow, spots across Yeouido Hangang Park are being traded for hundreds of thousands of won. People are laying down mats in prime locations to reserve them beforehand and then selling them for cash.
Reporter Cho Min-ki investigated the scene.
[Reporter]
The grassy banks of the Hangang River are packed with mats.
These so-called prime locations have been preemptively claimed to watch the Seoul World Fireworks Festival, which takes place tomorrow. In most cases, no people are in sight, only notes left behind warning others not to touch the mats.
Warning signs prohibiting such spot hoarding are posted in various spots around Yeouido Hangang Park.
However, the lawns are densely lined with mats of unknown owners.
On secondhand trading websites, listings offering to sell these reserved spots and mats have been pouring in since a few days ago.
Prices range from 160,000 won to 300,000 won for a four-person setup depending on the location, and there are even instances where the same person has uploaded multiple sales listings.
Surprised by this unusual sight rarely seen ordinarily, citizens out for a walk in Hangang Park expressed bewilderment and difficulty in understanding the situation.
[Moon Myung-su / Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul: This is a public space. Selling it personally for money just doesn't make common sense.]
[Lee In-jung & Yu Ho-yeon / Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul: Reserving a single spot and reselling it for 300,000 to 400,000 won really does not look good to us.]
Even if spots are hoarded and sold for cash, there is practically no legal basis to regulate this practice.
[Mirae Hangang Headquarters Official: We are not going to (collect and remove them). Because ultimately conflicts will arise, and we have to keep avoiding conflicts.]
When contacting a seller to purchase a spot, the response was to have no worries at all.
[Secondhand Marketplace Seller: Even they (the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the police) can't touch it. They can't just touch someone else's property recklessly. It would constitute embezzlement of lost property.]
Amidst the absurd situation where spaces meant for everyone to use for free are being traded for hundreds of thousands of won, the prices of paid alternatives have soared to astronomical heights.
A 6 million-won, two-person menu has appeared at a restaurant with a view of the fireworks festival, and listings to resell hotel vouchers for 3.2 million won have surfaced on secondhand trading platforms.
Listings offering to rent out one's own home for hundreds of thousands of won have also appeared, while an increasing number of apartment complexes are completely banning external visitor vehicles from entering to prevent free parking by outsiders.
(Video by: Choi Dae-woong | Video Editing by: Shin Seeun)
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