Seoullo 7017: Urban Asset or Vanity Project?

A scene from otherwise unmemorable 2009 film Private Eye [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483004/], about colonial-period Korea, has stayed lodged in my memory for the last eight years: Independence Gate stands alone in a field of wild grass, bushes and mist, with no other sign of human settlement or migration is in sight. Actual photos [http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=italy311&logNo=70019050388&parentCategoryNo=&categoryNo=&viewDate=&isShowPopularPosts=false&from=postView] from the peri