Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who set a record as the first popularly elected mayor to win a fifth term, made ‘safety inspections’ his first order of business.

Returning to his City Hall office on the morning of the 4th, Mayor Oh received handovers from Acting Mayor Kim Seong-bo (Second Vice Mayor for Administration) and from heads of bureaus and offices, then reviewed reinforcement plans related to the missing-rebar incident at Samseong Station on the GTX and the feasibility of opening the GTX on schedule, among other items. In the afternoon, he convened a special inspection meeting on comprehensive summer measures to discuss flood and heatwave response plans. The intention is to address safety issues first, which throughout the campaign had emerged as his own ‘risk’.

Having reaffirmed the support of Seoul residents, Mayor Oh is expected to put more weight behind major issues on which he has differed with the government. In particular, housing supply in the Yongsan International Business District and the development of Sewoon District 4 are matters on which he can no longer retreat. The central government plans to supply 10,000 housing units within the Yongsan International Business District, but the Seoul Metropolitan Government maintains that between 6,000 (the original plan) and up to 8,000 units is appropriate. The vote in Yongsan District (57.09%) also leaned toward Mayor Oh.

The plan for a supertall development in Sewoon District 4, in front of Jongmyo, also appears likely to gain momentum. The city maintains that the project has no legal problems. Mayor Oh plans to use this victory as a springboard to break through conflicts with the central government head-on.

The early supply of housing, a core pledge that won over Seoul voters, is also expected to accelerate. Mayor Oh has pledged to shorten redevelopment and reconstruction approval procedures to break ground on 310,000 housing units by 2031, and to manage 85 designated renewal zones totaling 85,000 units as priority starts. However, unless various prerequisites are in place, such as the government easing loan regulations, there is a limit to how much speed can be gained through permitting streamlining alone.

The task for his final term is to move beyond being the ‘mayor of Gangnam’. The ‘Fast-Track Integrated Planning’ initiative, centered on easing redevelopment and reconstruction regulations and shortening permitting timelines, succeeded in consolidating support in the Han River belt and the Gangnam area, but for Mayor Oh, now in a position to eye the presidential race, the challenge of balanced development across all of Seoul still remains.

The ‘Gangbuk Golden Era’ project, criticized during the campaign as being ‘aimed at courting northern Seoul voters’, will also pick up speed. While Mayor Oh achieved a late comeback on the strength of a flood of votes from the three Gangnam districts (Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa), he recorded relatively lower support in northern Seoul.

Over his four-year term, Mayor Oh plans to make the ‘Gangbuk Golden Era’ a reality, focusing on consolidating a support base in northern Seoul. The project centers on creating new economic hubs in the north that combine commercial, business, residential, and cultural functions, thereby narrowing the gap between Gangnam and Gangbuk.

Starting with the installation of the large-scale performance venue ‘Seoul Arena’, projects will proceed in sequence, including the creation of a K-entertainment town, construction of a multi-modal transfer center at Chang-dong Station, relocation of the Chang-dong rail yard, and the development of a Digital Bio City (S-DBC) on that site.