Visitors enjoy cherry blossoms around the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, during the annual spring flower festival, Tuesday. Yonhap

Yeouido is a former island in the Han River that became connected to the capital's southern side through a river redevelopment project decades ago.

Along with key financial and media landmarks, it is the center of national politics and a symbol of Korea's democracy, with the National Assembly taking up one-eighth of the island's total area.

It is also home to the most renowned spring flower festival in the city, the Yeouido Spring Flower Festival. Bright white and pink tunnels of cherry blossom trees around the Assembly usher in the start of the new season every spring, welcoming millions of visitors to celebrate annual cherry blossom festivities and take selfies among the 1,365 iconic cherry trees.

Cherry blossom trees of Japanese origin line the streets around the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

These cherry blossoms of Yeouido are quite similar to those around the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, in many ways. They both originate from Japan, attract millions of tourists every peak bloom season and foresee their last blooms this spring.

Despite some similarities, feelings toward them are completely different in both cities due to historical reasons.

The trees in Tidal Basin in the U.S. capital were gifts from Japan to the United States as a symbol of international friendship in 1912. There are approximately 3,800 of the trees within the park under the maintenance of the National Park Service of the United States.

Cherry blossoms are seen in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 18. AFP-Yonhap

Locals and tourists have celebrated cherry trees' blooming "in solidarity" for over a century, according to the National Park Service. One of the trees even went viral and became a social media sensation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This much-beloved tree is known as "Stumpy," nicknamed by a Redditor who joked that the scraggly tree with its rotting trunk and single branch looks as dead as his love life. Despite its dowdy appearance, the tree continues to bloom year after year while also becoming an object of public sympathy.

For years, visitors waited in line to snap a picture with Stumpy while some fans even made T-shirts and calendars of the iconic tree to call for its preservation.

Although these trees' average lifespan is around 60 years, the National Park Service planted hundreds of descendants from the 1912 donation to carry on the genetic lineage of the original trees.

Nevertheless, to many admirers' dismay, 158 of these beloved trees including Stumpy will be cut down in June as part of the National Park Service's $113 million repair of the Tidal Basin's seawalls slated to begin in May. Due to rising sea levels from the climate crisis, the water level of the Potomac River has gone up by more than a foot and regular surges of tidal waters over the barriers have soaked some of the trees' roots.

Several major U.S. news media reported Stumpy's last spring at the Tidal Basin, and noted that clippings from the tree will be sent to the U.S. National Arboretum to create genetic matches, which will hopefully result in Stumpy's clones being planted in nearby parks.

Visitors take photos of a cherry blossom tree nicknamed "Stumpy" in full bloom at the Tidal Basin in Washington, March 20. The National Park Service announced that it will begin to cut down over 140 cherry blossom trees around the Tidal Basin and West Potomac Park in anticipation of construction for an upgraded seawall to guard against flooding. AFP-Yonhap

Meanwhile, the Japanese origins of the cherry blossom-bearing trees in Korea's Yeouido, despite their unrivaled popularity to those in Washington, triggers somewhat "mixed sentiments" among locals, largely due to the island's emblematic significance for the nation.

Japan planted some 1,100 cherry trees in Changgyeong Palace at the dawn of its imperialist occupation of Korea in 1909 and degraded the royal palace to a zoo and botanical garden as part of its plan to annihilate the Korean national identity.

In 1981, the trees were moved to Yeouido, which then was a state-led planned zone that symbolized the country's industrial development amid rivalry with North Korea.

The sandbank island of Yeouido was once considered worthless and it flooded easily when the Han River waters surged. It was used as farmland for slaves and domestic animals during the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty and a military airport under Japan's 1910-45 colonial occupation.

Then, in the 1960s, Yeouido was transformed in a rapid development plan under the Park Chung-hee administration to represent the country's economic advancement. It housed some of the capital's very first apartment complexes to accommodate the soaring population. It also became the home of the National Assembly building and the giant Yeouido Square.

This Sept. 1, 1975, photo shows the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. Korea Times file

The giant square, which then was a symbol of power for Park's authoritarian regime often hosting state-led anti-communism campaigns, was later rebranded to Yeouido Park and saw the construction of nearby skyscrapers under the new civilian government after Korea's democratization in the 1980s.

It was the stage for major political events such as presidential campaigns and citizen-led political demonstrations, but lost the original anti-communist symbolic nature it embodied as the country's economy advanced far ahead of North Korea.

Then-presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung delivers a campaign speech at Yeouido Square in Seoul on Sept. 29, 1987. The area has since been transformed into Yeouido Park. Korea Times file

Amid growing calls to enhance the quality of life for the public, the cherry blossom trees from Changgyeong Palace were replanted in Yeouido as part of the state-led project to allocate urban green space.

Nevertheless, some uneasy feelings about the trees' historical background remain.

The Yeongdeungpo District Office renamed the annual spring festival from Cherry Blossom Festival to Spring Flower Festival out of concerns about its associations with Japan. Meanwhile, the district office announced, Monday, that it will replace the aging Japanese cherry blossoms with a native species from Jeju Island going forward.

The district office had been planting descendant trees of the Japanese species once the aging ones were found to be diseased or damaged by insects. However, it will now receive Jeju's native cherry blossom-bearing tree species from Seoul Botanic Park, once the sprouts reach full size.

"The district plans to carry on the reputation of Seoul's symbolic spring flower festival by replacing cherry blossoms in Yeouido with domestic species," Choi Ho-kwon, the district head, said in a released statement. "This will be a chance to promote the value of Jeju's cherry blossoms, which are designated as a national natural monument."

Visitors enjoy the annual spring flower festivities in Yeouido, Seoul, Sunday. Korea Times photo by Choi Joo-yeon