Seoul expands business places for food trucks

SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- The number of business places for food trucks in Seoul has been expanded to 13 from the existing eight in order to bolster the street food industry and mitigate conflicts between pop-up and brick-and-mortar restaurants, the Seoul city government said Thursday.

"The Seoul city proclaims and applies a new ordinance on the designation and management of business places for food trucks to that effect from today," a city official said.

The five new places include cultural facilities, facilities and pedestrian malls inside special tourist zones and venues for special events organized by public agencies, the official said.

But in case of facilities in cultural and tourist zones, only those areas owned or operated by the central and local governments and public organizations are allowed to mobile restaurants in order to prevent overcrowding and their development into an enterprise, the official said.

"Food trucks have not been vitalized due to restrictions on their business places and their discord with existing restaurants. So we've ironed out new regulations to expand the scope of their business locations and manage them more efficiently," the official said.

As of July, there are 87 foods trucks total in the country's capital.
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