[Anchor]

At Yeomyung School, an educational institution for North Korean defector youth in Seoul, the principal and local residents were seen kneeling and pleading with one another. A plan to build a school building on a closed school site in Gangseo-gu has sparked a clash between desperate appeals and strong opposition.

Reporter Kim Ayeong has the story.

[Reporter]

As a woman in a light blue jacket kneels down, participants on the opposite side hurriedly drop to their knees as well.

[Please, just leave (this place). Seriously. (Everyone, we must kneel down too.)]

This took place at a community information session held at Yeomyung School, an alternative school for North Korean defector youth located in Gangseo-gu, Seoul.

The woman who knelt first is the school principal, and those kneeling alongside her are local residents.

The school side is earnestly pleading for approval to construct a school building on a closed school site in Gangseo-gu, while nearby residents are strongly opposing it.

[Oppose! Oppose!]

Yeomyung School, which has around 100 students enrolled, has been temporarily leasing and using this closed school facility since August 2023.

As the temporary use period is set to end in February of next year, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and other authorities have begun pushing forward with a plan to officially construct a building on the same site.

The plan involves building the Seoul Early Childhood Education Promotion Institute on 90 percent of the site and establishing Yeomyung School on the remaining 10 percent, while separating the pedestrian routes of the two facilities. However, nearby residents argue that only the Early Childhood Education Promotion Institute should be built.

[Lee Moo-si / Chairman of the Emergency Countermeasure Committee Against the Establishment of Yeomyung School: (The Office of Education) promised us residents that it would be temporary when (Yeomyung School) moved in. No facilities other than early childhood facilities for children should be allowed in. (That's right!)]

There are also some residents who support securing a permanent home for Yeomyung School.

[Kim Moo-si / Resident in Support: It's not like exceptionally different people are gathering at (Yeomyung School). Anyway, I hope (people can look at this) with a broad mind.]

Yeomyung School previously attempted to relocate to Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, in 2019, but the plan fell through due to opposition from residents.

[Cho Myung-sook / Principal of Yeomyung School: These are children that our community needs to embrace, so I hope you can give them a little bit of a chance.]

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education stated that it selected the site by comprehensively considering project feasibility among seven candidate locations and added that it will continue to communicate with residents.

(Video Journalist: Cho Chang-hyun | Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa)