As the new City Hall building is nearing completion in May, the 10 million residents of the capital city are watching the peculiarly-shaped glass and steel structure, wondering how their lives will be affected by a liberal mayor who is applying his political ideology to administrative measures one after the other.

For the past five months since his election last October, Mayor Park Won-soon was more proactive in halting the projects pushed by his predecessor Oh Se-hoon than introducing his own. Sarcastic comments have it that the City Hall building may be the only trace of the past city administration when Park completes his term.

Park joined the Democratic United Party last month, a natural course as the opposition party had supported him in the by-election. And he decided not to play any active role as the mayor of the venue of the Nuclear Security Summit slated for March 26-27 in Seoul, also a natural course as his party formed a coalition of progressive political and social groups to oppose the forum. The summit opponents offered few convincing reasons other than some environmental arguments.

The mayor rejected an offer from the nuclear summit secretariat to hold a promotional media event for Seoul City prior to the summit. We share his doubts about the effect of such a program aimed at busy reporters, but it is hardly reassuring if his refusal reflected his outright denial of the causes of the summit. Prevention of nuclear terrorism and illicit trafficking of nuclear materials is the obligation of everyone and no political ideology is justified in opposing it.

Another Seoul City action under Park’s direction was the withholding of major redevelopment projects in residential districts, demanding a review to increase the proportion of small apartment units. The mayor is blamed for the plummeting prices of existing old apartments in the designated zones and residents accuse Park of halving their assets with an arbitrary, short-sighted policy that could lead to serious financial problems.

Three “floating islands” built by the previous administration are idly moored at a Han River quay as Park’s City Hall cut the budget for their operation. Many other restoration and facelift projects have been suspended or under review in the name of concentrating on welfare programs for the needy. We would like to remind Mayor Park that man cannot live by bread alone.