By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter



Muju County in North Cholla Province has been selected as the site for Taekwondo Park, the Minstry of Culture and Tourism announced Thursday.

In a press conference at the ministry office in Seoul, the Taekwondo Park Construction Steering Committee said Muju beat out two other candidates, Kyongju city in North Kyongsang Province and Chunchon city in Kangwon Province, in the second and final judging process.

Earlier in the month, a total of 17 cities and counties had vied for the three spots as final bidders. Muju, which placed second in the first examination behind Kyongju, this time scored 831.53 to be 7.66 points ahead of its rival with 823.87. Chunchon was third with 809.

The second round of judging, conducted Dec. 22-29, consisted of a presentation and two field assessments based on four major standards: suitability for the park; development potential; contribution to regional improvement and the capacity of local government. Muju only failed to top the list for development potential, the committee remarked.

The corporation for the development of the park will be founded and the administrative process completed next year. The construction of the park is planned to begin in 2007 in two phases, with the main installations built from 2007-2009 and the peripheral facilities from 2010-2013.

The committee suggested that the first phase of construction be completed by 2008, before the Beijing Summer Olympics gets underway, so that the park can attract taekwondo athletes and officials visiting the Chinese capital.

Under the concept of an ``experience-themed sports park,’’ an overall budget of 164.4 billion won is to be invested in the state-run business. Facilities to be built on the park’s 660,000 square meters include a Taekwondo Hall of Fame, a sports complex with accommodation, cultural villages and Oriental medicine sanitariums.

The sports park will produce tangible and intangible benefits of up to 3 trillion won a year, with an estimated 2.5 million visitors annually due to the popularity of the sport in about 180 countries around the globe, the ministry predicted.

It also hopes the park will become as popular as Shaolin Temple in China, home of Shaolin kung fu. Muju recently signed an agreement with Defeng city of China, where Shaolin Temple is located, to form an international network of taekwondo and kung fu.

Muju welcomed the decision and expects the park to contribute to boost the local economy as well as increase the population of the county, which numbered more than 80,000 in the 1970s but is currently down to around 26,000. The park is expected to bring mutual benefits with Muju Resort, a winter-sport complex in the region.

``We are happy with the result and are also sure that the ministry made a fair and proper decision,’’ Park Gun-yong, manager of the sports department at Muju County Office, told The Korea Times. ``We will do our best to meet the requirements of a sports park.’’

Doubts over possible political considerations in the result have been raised, as the top two candidates saw their positions reversed in the second round of judging despite there being little differences in the assessment standards. Muju recently lost in the domestic bidding competition for hosting the 2016 Winter Olympics to Pyongchang, Kangwon Province. The committee, however, rejected the possibility.

``I am certain that politics were not involved in any way,’’ Lee Dae-soon, the head of the committee, said. ``All the judges were from the private sector. And the difference in points for the first round was not that great.’’

``The first phase focused mostly on technical factors with figures while the second was more about actual field assessments. That’s the difference,’’ Lee explained.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr