Jeju City and merchants at Jungang (중앙) Underground Shopping Center are at loggerheads over how to run the place. Illicit subletting... and selling and buying business licenses at excessively high premiums… have been the norm for many years. Now, the provincial government is stepping forward to put an end to the illegal practices. Joseph Kim has more.
There are over 380 stores in the Jeju Jungang (중앙) Underground Shopping Center.

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25 stores illegally subleased
79 stores leased by tenants with more than 2 rentals

New data by the Jeju Provincial Government show that 7 percent, or 25 stores, are illegally subleased. 21 percent, or 79 stores, are rentals of tenants who have leased more than two stores… and 10 percent or 39 stores are held in joint ownership.

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Illegal sale of business licenses

Officials suspect some of the co-ownerships may be cover-ups of further unauthorized subleasing.

Insiders say it’s also no secret that business licenses are illegally bought and sold at premiums that cost hundreds of millions of won.

The prevalence of such illegal acts has been the result of a long-running system that allowed all transactions to be private, under the approval of the Merchants Association.

Jeju City now wants to change that, and is pushing forward with a law revision that will allow stores to be put up for public auction. If implemented, the revision would naturally bring an end to the illegal transactions currently taking place.

Interview
Baek Gwang-sik / Jeju Provincial Government>
The problem lies not in the subleasing itself, but in the excessively high premiums added to the price, which we must get to the bottom of.
<인터뷰:백광식 제주시 건설교통국장>
"양도·양수 자체가 문제가 되는 게 아니라 거기에 따르는 과다한 권리금이 오고가는 문제는 반드시 개선이 되어져야 할 거다고 보고있습니다.."

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Kim Seung-cheol

The Jeju Provincial Government has announced its plans for the legislation revision and will likely submit the bill to the Provincial Council before the end of the year, after gathering public opinion on the issue.

[REPORTER]
Joseph Kim

To minimize losses incurred by previous tenants, officials are considering keeping their business licenses valid for 4 to 5 years after their store has been auctioned off.

But the future of the law revision remains uncertain as vendors at the shopping center continue to show their strong disapproval of the plan.

Joseph Kim KCTV