INCHEON — Lee Jae-ho, 67, head of Incheon's Yeonsu District, won election this year as a conservative candidate despite the ruling party's strength, beginning a rare third term among Incheon's district chiefs. The district faces no shortage of challenges, from expanding the growth base of Songdo International City to improving housing conditions in older neighborhoods, and the planned relocation of the Overseas Koreans Agency has recently emerged as another flashpoint. With these issues mounting, the responsibility of a three-term district chief answerable to 440,000 residents has grown heavier.
Marking 100 days in his third term, Lee said in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily on the 16th that "the residents' support is a solemn order to complete Yeonsu's future with unwavering administrative capability." He added, "I will not forget the weight of responsibility that matches the trust given to me, and I will work on the ground to prove real change through results."
Lee served as a member of the 5th and 6th Incheon Metropolitan Council, chairing the special committee on budget and accounts and serving as vice speaker of the council. He was first elected head of Yeonsu District in 2014. He lost his re-election bid in 2018 but returned as district chief in 2022 and won again this year to begin a third term. During his first term he focused on fiscal soundness, and in his second he worked on balanced development between Songdo and older districts, leading projects including the construction of Songdo's second district office building and the ecological restoration of the Seunggi Stream.
The relocation of the Overseas Koreans Agency is the biggest issue Lee has faced since the start of his third term. In the government's second round of plans to relocate central administrative agencies, announced on the 13th, the agency in Yeonsu District was the only Incheon-based institution included. "Moving a state institution that was established through bipartisan agreement, National Assembly legislation and an open call for local government bids — flipping it over like the palm of a hand less than four years after it opened — is clearly administrative high-handedness," Lee said. "We can never be deprived of a core asset we won through the sweat and aspirations of our residents, and I will stake the political fate of my third term on scrapping this relocation."
While taking a hard line on the relocation, Lee is actively seeking cooperation with the Incheon city government on regional development. Lee, a member of the People Power Party, included the establishment of the Incheon Institute of Bioscience and Technology — the top campaign pledge of Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae of the Democratic Party of Korea — in the first policy proposal he sent to the city government after taking office, and asked that it be located in Songdo. The aim is to cooperate on projects needed for regional development regardless of political affiliation.
Songdo is home to major biotech companies including Samsung Biologics, Celltrion and Lotte Biologics. Lee plans to add research and development functions there to strengthen the competitiveness of the biotech industry. He is also pursuing a road map for splitting off a separate Songdo district in anticipation of population growth, along with a transfer of administrative authority. He cited other key tasks as attracting a public medical school to Incheon, building the Songdo tram, developing a multi-modal transfer center at Songdo Station for the KTX high-speed rail, and the timely opening of the GTX-B express commuter rail line.
In older districts, the administration is focusing on redeveloping aging residential areas and restructuring industrial facilities under the banner of a "Yeonsu Renaissance." To improve the economic viability of rebuilding in the Yeonsu and Seonhak areas, the district is pushing to raise the standard floor area ratio to more than 300%. On the site of the used-car export complex in Okryeon-dong, it plans to create a "Global AI Auto Valley" to turn the area into an advanced industry hub. The district will also strengthen safety management to prevent ground subsidence and expand everyday administrative services, such as an AI app that checks on older adults living alone.
On the long-stalled Booyoung Songdo theme park site in Dongchun-dong, Lee held to the existing development principle. Opposing calls to use the site for public rental housing, he said, "Letting a private developer that has failed to build the promised theme park for more than a decade build apartments instead would be a favor to a large conglomerate and a bad precedent." He added, "Under the principle of soil remediation first, development later, we will handle this based solely on the safety and interests of our residents."
Lee said he wants to be remembered after his term as "a district chief who kept his promises." He said organizing his third-term pledges into 90 items reflected an emphasis on feasibility and delivery. "Politicians must prove themselves by results, not flashy pledges," he said. "With the tenacity of a third term, I will break through the issues at hand and complete Yeonsu as the finest premium city in South Korea."
