Seoul Summer Beach and Swag

From July 20 to August 9, a giant, free water park will welcome Seoulites on Gwanghwamun Square and Sejongno Park. After drawing about 900k visitors in 2004 and 1.5M last year, Seoul Summer Beach could be even more popular with a 3rd edition featuring pools, slides, and a sand playground. 

Who knows? BTS 'could spend a lifetime watching you swim'

The sandy space will be under a 12 m wide dome that brings more to mind an igloo than a summer beach, and won't allow you to fully enjoy Seoul's most iconic scenery, but sand can be messy, particularly during the rainy season. And hygiene should be less an issue; as a Parisian, I've never dared basking in Paris Plage's sandy stretches. 

I remember chatting with PARK Won-soon about Paris Plage. First meant for Parisians who can't afford going on holidays, this yearly festival covers the expressway along the Seine (now reclaimed by pedestrians) with a beach anyone can enjoy for free. The former mayor was toying with the idea of adapting that other Parisian tradition (following Velib, La Nuit Blanche etc), but it wouldn't make much of a splash along the Han River (too wide a river, riversides more disconnected from the rest of the city, Hangang Park already boasting its own water activities...). 

Gwanghwmun Square and Sejongdaero are much more relevant and impactful for this kind of festivities.

Which doesn't mean that the rest of the city will remain dry: we've seen neighborhood parks transformed into water parks during the summer long before Seoul Summer Beach existed, and there are so many ways of having fun while getting soaked, from the Sinchon Water Gun Festival and its giant water slide along Yonsei-ro to PSY's torrential Summer Swag concerts.

My favorite drenched memory in Seoul remains the day I was caught by a sudden downpour in Jongno-gu. The time to run twenty meters to the closest shelter, I was already totally soaked. Because there was no way a bus or a taxi could accept me, I decided to just walk back home peacefully, simply enjoying the shower with a great smile. 

Of course, as Seoul and Korea well know*, too much water can be dangerous. So enjoy responsibly, and have a great summer.

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* and as PSY also knows now: he was once scolded for hosing his fans with 300 tons of water during a concert in the middle of a drought.

Tear down that Seoullo?

On Tuesday, Seoul announced that a MOU shall be signed on September 11 (!) between the city, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, and the National Architecture Policy Committee to elevate certain areas as 'national symbolic spaces'*. Among them, Seoul Station area. The Seoul Institute will complete a master plan for this problematic hub by October, and the removal of the highly controversial Seoullo 7017 is officially on the table.

I hope that will be the outcome, but more fundamentally, I hope that this time, the underlying problems will not be eluded but tackled, and I hope that this time, we will have a proper process with adequate consultation, consensus, and impact surveys (remember how PARK Won-soon rushed ahead of the elections, ignoring all red flags?).

If you follow this excuse for a blog, you already know that I'm not a fan of this urban and environmental nonsense (yes, environmental too: Seoul needs more natural biomass continuity and rich, water absorbing soils, not more thirsty plants isolated in flower pots... and certainly not sorted in alphabetical order, like in MRVDV's winning project).

You already know that the comparison with NYC's highline (itself inspired by Paris' Promenade Plantee) was a fallacy, that Seoullo should rather be compared to Cheonggye Highway, and that it chose not to solve the key issues (street level, railways...). 

You already know that maintenance costs were not sustainable, that visitor numbers started plummeting from the beginning, even before the pandemic, and that they keep decreasing. The expected failure is total.

But you also know that removing Seoullo 7017 will not solve anything by itself, that pedestrians need a safer way of crossing this sea of roads and railways, and that this concrete, steal, and asphalt sea can't remain a sea for much longer:

 

Seoul Station area and Seoullo 7017 (Naver Maps)

To say the least, Seoul Station's multimodal hub is very dense and messy. Tongil-ro, Sejong-daero, and Toegye-ro merge into Hangang-daero, with the Gyeongui Line and its sisters on one side, Huam-ro, and countless car and bus lanes on the other. Dedicated bus lanes have considerably facilitated pedestrian circulation on street level, and this thick ribbon may be further reduced into narrower, crossable axes. 

If going above ground failed and if the underground is saturated, there are possibilities.

Covering the railways remains high on the city's wish list, but this takes a lot of time and money. Seoul is considering moving bus transfers to the back of the station (which will have big impacts as well), and to extend walkways to prolong Sejong-daero's green promenade - I suppose with the necessary bicycle lanes - ultimately all the way from Gwanghwamun to the Han River (7 km).

Improving alternatives may reduce the flow of cars, and not just alternative routes beyond this area; alternatives that reduce the use of cars altogether. Quite a challenge in a multimodal hub already subject to bottlenecks at many levels...

What a fascinating urban challenge! One that calls for innovation instead of band-aids.

In any case, expect more Monday quarterbacking from yours truly.

 

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* I won't elaborate on this 'national symbolic space' concept, but Seoul Station clearly remains a cultural icon for the nation (entry point for many to the capital city, Gyeongui Line between Seoul and Sinuiju, Tongil-ro, KTX, Culture Station Seoul 284...).  

Seoul: inhuman, all too human

"If Paris were a recurring hero in series of novels, Seoul would rather be a shape-shifting character, always mutating between two short stories. That could be the very definition of a city: a very real work of fiction always trying to liberate itself from its authors."

Published not long after Park Won-soon took office, my essay on Seoul urbanism is now available in English. You can download it for free on Academia.edu: "Seoul: inhuman, all too human"*.

Fun to see what changed and what didn't since then. I might consider a sequel, which would probably cover the successes, failures, and impostures of urban regeneration.

(photo: urban farming along Danghyeoncheon, before Nowon-gu revamped it).

*

SEOUL: INHUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN

One megalopolis, a hundred villages, a thousand visages

1) The industry of dreams – the ideal city

. Industrial housing revolution: from the virtuous cycle to the bubble

. From mass market consumer goods to fashion and services, from utopia to
dystopia

2) Humans in transit

. Communities and shared spaces

. Life and survival of villages

3) Ideal city 2.0 and new utopias

. The end of an era, but not yet the end of the real estate dream

. From "hard city" to "soft city"

. From New Town to Human Town, villages are back in favor

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* for the original version (in French), see "Inhuman, all too human Seoul"

Mayor Park to ground control

Seoul Mayor PARK Won-soon was found dead right after midnight last night in what appears to be a suicide triggered by accusations of sexual assaults. His body was found with the help of police dogs in a park near Sukjeongmun, in the Seongbuk-gu where he resided. The city of Seoul will hold mayoral funerals, and he shall rest in peace on Monday.

Suicide is always a tragedy, and I feel sorry for PARK, but I feel even more sorry for victims who won't get justice, since his death means all cases are now dropped. So it's up to the medias to investigate, or to the victims to come forward if they find enough courage to do so without the full framework of justice.
 
As all mayors, PARK leaves a mixed legacy, and as I did with his predecessors / as I will try to do with his successors, I didn't spare him with praise or criticism. If I welcomed PARK's late conversion to urbanism, and focus on urban regeneration, I disliked his doubletalk in favor of wealthy speculators and neighborhoods (not only in Gangnam and Yongsan), or his recent u-turn to reprioritize high-rise approaches. As I pointed out in the past, where Seoul mayors tend to boast 'hardware' realizations (Cheonggyecheon for LEE Myung-bak, Gwanghwamun Square for OH Se-hoon, Seoullo 7017 for PARK Won-soon), their main achievements may be on a more 'software' side: dedicated bus lanes for LEE, rebalancing budgets from wealthy areas to (re)vitalize the deprived ones for OH, and opening the big data flows for PARK (a sharing approach he prolonged during this coronavirus pandemic).

When I heard that Seoul mayor was missing, as the drama unfolded live on TV, as the rumor mill started to grind, I wondered like everyone what was happening. PARK Won-soon flying away for a scandal, that didn't surprise me at all. But PARK Won-soon perpetrating sordid sex abuses, or committing suicide, I would never have expected that.

While guessing which scandal he was trying to escape, I imagined all potential threads including the wildest conspiracy theories, from another Yonsei story (following the scandal surrounding his son, the prime estate sold by the city to the university for a song...) to a brush with Seoul underworld (suspiciously, seedy businesses were twice overly protected during the pandemic). Yet I would never have pictured him as a sexual predator. As for his disappearance, until the end I thought he planned a Houdini escape, his trek to the mountain a red herring cleverly mirroring ROH Moo-hyun's last moments. I truly believed that PARK Won-soon was too imbued with himself to kill himself. I was totally wrong, and that made me think again about what I thought I knew of the man.

The first time I remember meeting him was in 2009, with other members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when they were digging in directions that - to say the least - didn't always make ultra-conservatives very happy. The voices of victims were rising after decades of silence, and not long afterwards, LEE Myung-bak would torpedo the institution, derailing dynamics badly needed for Korea to start its healing. PARK looked focused and a bit shy, probably because the discussions were in English. Anyway, very different from the flamboyant Mayor I'd meet years later in many occasions (of course I don't think he'd remember well this guy among all the faces he came across).

This populist got a lucky break in politics when OH Se-hoon shot himself in the foot, but he was great at campaining, building support from the youth, and making top down initiatives look as if they popped up from citizens.

I remember a man who obviously could not bear not being likable, not looking young (he eventually fixed those recurring complaints about receding hair). Even his irrepressible presidential ambitions, never tamed by mediocre national polls, could become touching, pathetic.

More accessible than his predecessor (a different kind of narcissist), PARK was a genial host, particularly warm with journalists, media, and bloggers. Obsessed with photo ops to the point he created a mock office in city hall, this PR junkie was regularly mocked at by the way he called camera crews ahead of his 'spontaneous', 'selfless' shows. He could be quite direct about what he expected from you (your vote, your public praise), but didn't retaliate if you didn't play the game. Well this kind of games at least... I may be speculating again, but we know insecure narcissists have dark sides.

For sure, if PARK Won-soon often defended very noble causes, he can't and shouldn't be compared to ROH Moo-hyun.

His fall rather echoes that of AHN Hee-jung, and yesterday I couldn't help but remember the 2017 images of MOON Jae-in, PARK Won-soon, and AHN Hee-jung on that Gwanghwamun podium on victory night.

PARK's scandal happens at the very moment MOON is lambasted for sending AHN, for the funerals of his mother, flowers paid with taxpayers money; at the very moment the icon who for decades composed the soundtrack of Korea's democratic movements, AHN Chi-hwan, releases 'Irony', a song criticizing harshly self-proclaimed progressives who have turned not only into conservatives for their own power, but into existential threats to the democracy they are supposed to have fought for as activists (thinking of you, CHO Kuk, YOON Mee-hyang, and even you, at the very top).

We all have our greatnesses, weaknesses, and contradictions, but there are lines not to cross, particularly when you hold power. Even if it ends up with yet another suicide, yet more impunity for sexual abuses, may this tragedy help Korean politicians be less tempted to fail as humans.

"Just a few files to sort before Christmas, and we're back to you! (with @wonsoonpark in #Seoul City Hall)

" (20131224 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/415405587891884032)

"Good!" (20131224 - PWS's answer, from his former Twitter account - @wonsoonpark)

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Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture, Seoul Biennale 2019 Symposium

The day before Mayor PARK Won-soon cut the ribbon with a dozen VIPs (see below), the new Seoul Hall Of URbanism and Architecture hosted a pre-Seoul Biennale Symposium. A perfect occasion to roam the venue, to the notable exception of the exhibition spaces, and key connections to the neighborhood's underground system, which only opened for the official inauguration.

Yes, I'm talking about the 'Sejongdaero' project we followed from its earliest stages, back in 2015, where the old Japanese tax office used to stand:
. "Tear down that tax office" (20150506)
. "Sejongdaero" competition officially started' (20150727)
. "Sejong-daero winner announced" (20151012)

But before exploring this Seoul HOUR, how about a focus on the Biennale and its symposium?

 

View this post on Instagram

#RibbonCutting ceremony: #SeoulHOUR inauguration with #Seoul mayor #ParkWonsoon and #SeungHyosang. #SeoulHallOfUrbanismAndArchitecture #서울도시건축전시관 #architecture #urbanism

A post shared by Stephane MOT (@stephanemot) on Mar 27, 2019 at 11:09pm PDT

***

2019 Seoul Biennale and Pre-Biennale Symposium

If the first symposium, held at the Seoul Museum of History in October 2015, questioned even the principle of a biennale (why not a triennale?), this one went as far as presenting the material used to build the stands. A sharp contrast between an exploratory discussion two years before a first edition, and an operational briefing six months ahead of the second.

"#Seoul, #Barcelona, #Yokohama, #Shenzhen, #Medellin, #Berlin on stage of #SIBAU2015 Symposium " (20151027 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/658845140505653248)

A new tandem, LIM Jaeyong and Francisco SANIN, replaced PAI Hyungmin and Alejandro ZAERA-POLO at the heads of the bicephale biennale, knowing that, of course, SEUNG H. Sang remains close by, even if this time, he didn't take the mike (cameo apparitions on a few slides, though).

"#Seoul Biennale 2019 Symposium 20190327.
Between #Francisco Sanin and #Lim Jaeyong: #Cho Minsuk, #Armando Hashimoto, #Peter Wilson, #Noura Al Sayeh, #Chon Jaesun, #Alicia Lazzaroni... #Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism #architecture #urbanism #seoulhour" (20190412 - https://www.instagram.com/p/BwI7PM9JFsL/)

After 'Imminent Commons', Seoul went for the theme 'Collective City' (announced last December), around the same 4 main axes:

• Thematic exhibition (curator Beth Hugues): research and propositions around the 'collective city' notion, held in the DDP (Design Exhibition Hall, Design Pathway). Let's see what comes up from the various topics (typology, post-domestic city, mediation, heritage, infrastructures, ecology...).
• Cities exhibition (curators YIM Dongwoo, Rafael LUNA): I'm excited by the choice of Donuimun Museum Village and its Seoul Center for Architecture and Urbanism for the venue instead of the DDP, where the first edition took place. Mind you, that was a terrific exhibition, and they managed to make it not look like a fair, in spite of the site, but Sinmunno provides the perfect - if challenging - backdrop for a genuine global village, with actual alleyways. Dongwoo already researched innovative mapping axes for the 80 cities.
• Global studio (curator CHOE Sanki): note the semantic shift from the 'international studios' of the first edition (curated by John HONG, who presented his return on experience). All events shall be concentrated around Seun Sangga (Sewoon Plaza, Sewoon Hall).
• Live Projects (curator JANG Young-chul): articulated around the concept of market, very relevant in the context of a collective city, particularly since, as JANG reminded us, the '시' in '도시' (city) means 'market'. Two venues: Seun Sangga (Sewoon Plaza, Daelim Sangga), and the Seoul Museum of History.

I presume Seoul HOUR shall also serve as a venue, if not a hub. Anyway, Sadaemun's Jong-ro - Saemunan-ro horizontal remains the biennale's urban backbone. And if you forgot what I'm referring to, I shalt forgive thee, but here's the animated map:





If I'm looking forward this second biennale (September 7 - November 10), this symposium was already worth attending, with stimulating presentations, moments and chats. Special mentions to:

• Jae-sung CHON's ode to the collective mess (he had me from the start by mentioning Kowloon Walled City and Seoul markets), and his fake news journal to project the reader in the future... that's my vision of urbanism, where you shouldn't sanitize everything, but leave room for organisms to evolve, grow, mutate by themselves. 
• Peter Ferretto's respect for China's threatened wonders (beautiful project in Gao Bu, Hunan). 
• CHO Minsuk's updates on Danginri and Bamseom, the rooftop theater of his Seoul Cinematheque. 
• Alicia Lazzaroni's 'vulnerability as a design' 
• KIM So-young's 'negociated city' 
• Erik L'Heureux's lyricism about HCMC's forgotten gems. He saw no connections to Seoul, but I couldn't stop thinking about my dear "Hoehyeon Apt, Chungjeong Apt, Dongdaemun Apt, Ogin Apt..." 
• John HONG reclaiming preservation as radical, 'Citizen Jane'-style, and LIM Jaeyong musing 'but if it's us vs them, who are we, who are they?'

On the eve of its inauguration, at the new #Seoul Hall Of Urbanism And Architecture for the Pre-Biennale Symposium
Workshop featuring (left to right): #Peter Tagiuri #Alicia Lazzaroni #Klaas Kresse #Kim Soy-oung #Patrick Weber #John Hong #Choe Sanki #Erik L'Heureux #Chon Jaesung #Peter Ferretto #Rafael Luna #Yim Dongwoo
#Seoul Biennale #Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism #서울도시건축프리비엔날레 #SBAU
#서울도시건축전시관 #seoulhour (SeoulVillage Facebook page - 20190327)

***

Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture


So we now know how this 'Seoul Chronicle' works, and what its purpose is. From the beginning, I liked the minimalist approach with a focus on connectivity over and underground, the new building subliming surrounding structures: Deoksugung walls, the Seoul Anglican Cathedral, and even the less gracious Seoul Metropolitan Council, whose campanile almost ends up making sense. 

You can reach Seoul HOUR's rooftop from all sides, and face the stream of Sejongdaero as if from a non-scary diving board, with the bulging side of Seoul City Hall in front of you, Gwanghwamun to your left, and Seoul Plaza to your right. If you return to street level, you can also enjoy a panoramic view while sipping a cup of - what else* - coffee.

"Of course, #SeoulHOUR also has a cafe (ground level), and a rooftop view on #Seoul City Hall and #Seoul Anglican Cathedral (just-above-ground-level rooftop) #서울도시건축전시관 #Seoul Hall Of Urbanism And Architecture" (201903 https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1110894852370161664)

Now in this kind of iceberg structures, you need to dive well below the surface, through 3 underground levels with relatively low ceilings, except in strategic places, and of course for 'VIUM Hall', the huge parallepiped going through all four levels. Frankly, the first impression of this main exhibition space is a bit disappointing: you can reach it directly through a central, monumental staircase that feels somehow like a Seoul subway entrance (yes, as advertised, Seoul HOUR is connected to the Sejongno underground network, which means among others City Hall, and the subway). Furthermore, halfway down, your first glance at the inaugural exhibition (about Vienna public housing) is from above, which makes it look smaller and weaker behind its scaffoldings. Video projections on the wall to your right don't quite make for the big dark void in front of you. I understand the architectural logic to prolong Deoksugung's walls, but from this angle, this corner is really too dark, and not exactly awe inspiring.

But that can be fixed easily; a towering exhibit, or why not an ethereal SUH Do-ho fabric house?

To truly appreciate the hall's volume, this is the best angle, facing lighter structures, the glass connections to the other floors and exhibition spaces, the window towards the street:

"#Seoul HOUR Inauguration with #Seoul mayor #Park Won-soon:" (20190328 https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1111134424853184514)

Here are the 4 inaugural exhibitions: 

• 'Vienna Model - the past, present, and future of public housing', with a resolutely no-frills museography
• 'The social role of architecture' (starting with Seoullo 7017, just to make the mayor happy, I presume)
• 'An-other Seoul', with a 3D map of the capital city reminiscent of the bigger one at the Seoul Museum of History, and an interesting scenario: what if, instead of reducing every year greenbelt areas (see "Land mining Seoul"), urban planners made better use of the sites related to infrastructure, which represent almost two thirds of Seoul's total surfce?
• 'Documenting the city', curated by LEE Sang-koo, with a focus on familiar lost villages (Sinwol-dong, Sanggye-dong, Geoyeo-dong).

"#Sneak peek at #Seoul HOUR (#Seoul Hall of URbanism And Architecture) one day before its inauguration, for #Seoul Biennale Symposium. Expo on #public housing in #Vienna, #Seoul #3d map (reminiscent of #Seoul Museum of History)... #서울도시건축전시관" (20190327 https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1110892328120508416)

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* for instance City Hall in 2012 ("Seoul Tsunami City Hall, The Other Korean Wave"), the DDP in 2013 (see "Sneak peek inside Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park")
** see "500 m, 80%, 100% urban crappuccino"

#Ribbon Cutting ceremony: #Seoul HOUR inauguration with #Seoul mayor #Park Won-soon and #Seung Hyo-sang.#Seoul Hall Of Urbanism And Architecture #서울도시건축전시관 pic.twitter.com/Mme0XEkU4a

— Seoul Village (@theseoulvillage) March 28, 2019

Gangbuk LRT - Naebu v. Seobu, or PARK v. OH?

Out of the blue, Seoul Metropolitan Government unveiled a brand new, 24.8 km, 15-station subway line joining Mok-dong (Yangcheon-gu) to Cheongnyangni (Dongdaemun-gu) along the Naebu Expressway, that disgraceful overpass scarring countless Seoul neighborhoods*.

Construction would start as early as 2021, for a project that was not even part of the 10 LRT projects announced for 2025 in 2015 ("Seoul subway to gain 89 km by 2025"). Yet, it would connect the dots between two of them: the Mok-dong Line to the West (Sinwol-dong - Mok-dong), and the Myeonmok Line to the East (Cheongnyangni - Sinnae).

"서울 내부순환로 땅 밑으로 '강북횡단 경전철' 건설 추진 출처" (Chosun Ilbo 20190212)

*

As you well know, I'm all for new railway lines, but all this seems a bit hasty, if not suspicious:

• such projects usually take years and years to study, and 2021 seems a very aggressive target for starting the construction
• the route doesn't seem optimized for transportation needs, but happens to be on land mostly owned by the city, which may speed up the process
• as we've seen before, subway projects are highly political in Seoul, and countless railway projects announced before key elections have been dumped afterwards. Yet as soon as a project actually starts, land value immediately jumps
• the only date given is the start of the project, and 2021 happens to be the year preceding the next presidential elections
• this Gangbuk LRT / Naebu Line / Naebuseon could cannibalize, and maybe even kill a major project the city and many partners have been working on for a long while: the Seobu Line / Seobuseon, confirmed as a priority by the city not so long ago ("Seobu Line confirmed as Seoul's LRT top priority")
• Seobuseon was initiated under former mayor OH Se-hoon who, like his successor PARK Won-soon, hasn't given up his presidential ambitions, even if, for the moment, both are lagging behind in the polls**
• this new project is supposed to be part of Seoul's third urban railways plan, to be announced later (that's a 10-year plan, last one was for 2015-2025, maybe the plan will be revealed in 2020, but this can't wait because of the elections)
• ...

This may sound a tad cynical but again, announcements related to subways have always been heavily political (whatever the party in charge), because there's so much at stake at the real estate level, and you know how much that counts in Seoul.

*

Now, let's have a closer look at this new line. We don't have the details yet, particularly the list of stations, or how the Han River or Bugaksan shall be crossed (doubling Seongsan Bridge and the Bugak Tunnel? under the Hangang?), but we can get a more than general idea.

Comparing the new map (above) to the one featuring the previous 10 projects (see ""Seoul LRT Projects Update (Part 1/2)", "Seoul LRT Projects Update (Part 2/2)"), and of course the Naebu Expressway, here's my best guess, going from West to East:

• 'Gangbuk LRT' seems to start from the potential Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital station of the Mok-dong Line (west of Anyangcheon, and Dangsan Station). 
• it then seems to intersect with Line 9 at Sinmok-dong Station before crossing the river on Seongsan Bridge
• on the other side of the river, it would certainly meet Line 6 at Mapo-gu Office
• after that, it probably connects with Gyeongui Jungang Line / Gyeongui Line at Gajwa Station, and Line 3 at Hongje Station, with a couple stations in-between (at least one at the intersection of Jeungga-ro and Hongjecheon, between Yeonhui-dong and Namgajwa-dong, and one at Seodaemun-gu Office)
• we know that the new line joins the Ui-Sinseol LRT line at Jeongneung Station (Seongbuk-gu), but it would be utterly stupid to spend millions just crossing the mountain like the Naebu Expressway, and leaving Jongno-gu's Pyeongchang-dong valley completely off Seoul's railway grid. I would rather follow the road (Segeomjeong-ro / Pyeongchangmunhwa-ro), and add one station right before Inwangsan (in Hongeun-dong), and a couple in the valley itself, for example***: 
• one at the feet of Sangmyung University Seoul (Hongji-dong at Jahamun-ro), or at the Sinyeong-dong Samgeori (Segumjung Elementary School at Jinheung-ro)
• one or two at the intersection with the roads leading uphill (e.g. at Pyeongchang 20-gil)
• so far, between Mok-dong and Jeongneung, we have listed 9 to 11 stations, which leaves us 4 to 6 until the end. Judging by the map, I could add up to 5 existing stations: on Line 4 (Gireum Station), Line 6 (Wolgok Station, Korea University Station), and Line 1 (Jegi-dong Station, Cheongnyangni).

The main advantages would be to cover two big holes in Seoul's subway map: central Seodaemun-gu, and Pyeongchang-dong, and to add horizontality where it could make sense. But the Seobu Line is far better designed for the needs of Western Seoul, doubling the Naebu Expressway would demand disproportionate investments, and there are probably far smarter horizontals to build.

Of course, the fact that many cars use an urban highway doesn't mean that many citizens would take the same route by subway. Fundamentally, this top-down project doesn't seem fully thought through. I hope Seoul has a more serious and comprehensive plan to not only fix these two holes, but also pave more cleverly the (rail)way for the removal of the city's embarrassing elevated expressways.

*

Anyway, even if this project fails, and even if Mayor PARK fails in 2022, he still can run another marathon: Seoul has just been confirmed as Pyongyang's sister city in the bid for the 2032 Olympic Games (little suspense there, Busan didn't make much geographical sense):

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* most dramatically in the charming Hongjecheon valley (see "Along Hongjecheon, my way or the highway")
** in a mirror fashion, Prime Minister LEE Nak-yon leads against Seoul Mayor PARK while former PM HWANG Kyo-ahn leads against former Seoul Mayor OH (including in the race for LKP leadership later this month, with a vote expected during Trump-Kim Summit II in Hanoi):

2022 poll (JoongAng Ilbo): liberals LEE Nak-yon, RHYU Si-min, PARK Won-soon, conservatives HWANG Kyo-ahn, OH Se-hoon, HONG Joon-pyo (20190103 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1080637278605570048)

*** that's what I had in mind in the 'second circular line' project mentioned in my comment dated "August 20, 2013 at 6:00 PM"