Namhansanseong was designated as a national park by President Syngman Rhee in the 1950s, but its new-found status was nullified during the Second Republic of Korea after the April 19 Revolution in 1960, and the Songsutap Tower erected there to commemorate President Syngman Rhee was demolished.
A decade or so later, on March 17, 1971, Namhansanseong was designated as a provincial park, while the road running from Gwangjiwon to Seongnam via Namhansanseong was paved in 1974, improving the local traffic network considerably. It is said that the road was paved after the local residents complained to then President Park Chung-hee, during his visit to Namhansanseong, about the inconvenience of the unpaved road.
Consequently, it became much easier for people from Seoul and the surrounding areas to visit Namhansanseong. Meanwhile, in 1974, Jungbu-myeon Office was moved from Sanseong-ri to Gwangjiwon-ri, and Namhansanseong’s cultural heritages were repaired and restored on a continuous basis after its designation as a provincial park.
From 1975 to 1997, the impressive sum of 4.036 billion won was spent on repairing and restoring a 5.1 kilometer-long section of the fortress wall, and the fortress gradually recovered its original appearance. In 1976, the Namhansanseong Management Office was opened to protect the fortress’s cultural heritages and to maintain and manage all of the park’s facilities. In particular, from the mid-1980s onwards, as Korea became increasingly affluent and private cars became more common, Namhansanseong, lying within easy reach of the capital region, gradually became a popular cultural tourism attraction.