The government has proposed "conditional authorization" in an environment impact assessment on the construction of a long-disputed second cable car line inside Seoraksan National Park.

The environment ministry's regional office in Wonju said on Monday that the proposal was made after the Yangyang County government included measures to reduce the project's environmental impact in a supplementary report submitted last December.

With the latest decision, the Mount Seorak project is now expected to go through an interior ministry review to allocate an estimated budget of over 50 billion won.

The project, which has caused a deep divide between those pushing for regional development and others fighting for environmental conservation since the 1980s, is one of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's 15 key regional development tasks for Gangwon Province.

Despite the government's proposal, the dispute is far from resolved, with an earlier opinion by the state-run Korea Environment Institute assessing that the considerably adverse impact the project will have on the environment renders it “inappropriate.”

The prospective site for the cable car line spans a national park’s conservation zone, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, a key Baekdu Daegan mountain range conservation area and a forest genetic resource reserve.