Chungnam Province "Confident in Attracting Korea Army Academy to Nonsan"

Kim Yong-chan, Deputy Governor of the Provincial Government, declared the intention to host the Korea Military Academy in Nonsan during a press conference on the 28th. Provided by Chungnam Province

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province has declared its determination to attract the Korea Military Academy.

Kim Yong-chan, Deputy Governor of Chungnam Province, said at a press conference held at the Chungnam Provincial Government Building on the 28th, “If the relocation of the Military Academy is confirmed, Chungnam will do its utmost to attract the Academy to Nonsan.”

In particular, Kim emphasized, “Attracting the Military Academy to Nonsan is a campaign pledge of Chungnam Governor Yang Seung-jo. The province has already formed a task force (TF) to review the feasibility and necessity of attracting the Academy to Nonsan,” adding, “The Provincial Council has also established a special committee and has been conducting in-depth internal discussions.”

However, he explained that until now, “since the relocation of the Military Academy had not been confirmed, there were concerns that revealing the intention and related activities to attract it externally could cause confusion,” so preliminary work was carried out quietly.

He also emphasized that recently, as Gyeonggi Province first expressed its intention to attract the Military Academy following its relocation, Chungnam will no longer discuss the intention to attract the Academy quietly but will officially announce it both internally and externally.

Deputy Governor Kim also stated, “If the relocation of the Military Academy is decided, the relocation site must be Nonsan, Chungnam.”

As for the necessity of relocating the Military Academy to Nonsan, he cited “the proper realization of the philosophy of national balanced development.”

Kim said, “The Seoul metropolitan area accounts for only 11.8% of the national land area, but more than half of the country’s population, 26 million people, reside there. Based on this, voices calling for measures to bridge the gap between the metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas are growing. At this point, relocating the Military Academy to the metropolitan area would be a step backward from the spirit of national balanced development,” warning against it.

Above all, Deputy Governor Kim pointed out that Nonsan and Gyeryong are home to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Training Center, and the Korea National Defense University, as well as about 30 defense-related industry-academia-research institutions such as the Agency for Defense Development and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. This concentration of defense infrastructure is another reason why the Military Academy should relocate to Nonsan. The synergy effect between the existing defense infrastructure and the Military Academy would be maximized.

Furthermore, Kim emphasized, “Chungnam has experience successfully attracting the Korea National Defense University,” and “Chungnam has the capability to successfully carry out the entire process, including preliminary and follow-up procedures for the relocation of the Military Academy, better than any other region.”

He concluded, “Chungnam’s position on attracting the Military Academy is clear and firm,” and “I am confident that if the support of 2.2 million residents is united, attracting the Military Academy to Nonsan can definitely be achieved.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.