Noryangjin fish sellers won’t move
Angry vendors at a major fish market in southern Seoul clashed on Thursday with officials who attempted to
carry out a court order to forcibly relocate their shops. About 150 merchants at the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale
Market tussled with 300 enforcement officers and blocked the entrance to their shops. The merchants called the
terms of the deal unfair and urged the officers not to execute the court order. The skirmish continued for about an
hour and a half until 9:30 a.m. when the officers pulled out. The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, the
market’s proprietor, won a court order to enforce the relocation of 95 stores that have resisted moving into a new
location. The Seoul Central District Court granted the order after the Supreme Court upheld the cooperative’s push
for the relocation. The move is part of a modernization project aimed at demolishing the decades-old market and
renovating the area.
There are concerns about safety and other infrastructure issues in the 48-year-old fish market, and the
cooperative launched a government-funded plan in 2004 to overhaul the establishment. The renovated market,
located on the same premises, opened in March 2016. While the majority of existing merchants and wholesalers
has agreed to the relocation and moved into the new building, other vendors still refuse to relocate, primarily
because of unsatisfactory compensation and higher rent. They have also insisted that the new space is unfit for
fish shops and too cramped to run their business, which is a cross between retail and wholesale. The cooperative
said it has offered 30 billion won ($26.6 million) in supplementary support for the merchants and will seek to
resolve the matter through negotiations. It stressed the relocation was inevitable, citing the danger of potential
accidents from deterioration in the old market. A representative of the opposing merchants said they would not
back down until the cooperative “guarantees our survival and leaves the old market in place.”