Gwangju City Issues Statement on Military Airport Relocation... "Regret" Over Lack of Progress

"If the 'Intergovernmental Consultative Body' Led by the Prime Minister's Office Is Formed, We Will Do Our Best for Early Resolution"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City has established a future direction regarding the lack of progress in discussions on the airport relocation issue, the region's biggest pending matter.

Spokesperson Kim Yi-gang stated in a press release on the 30th, "We announced our position to follow the decision of the 'Military Airport Four-Party Consultative Body' regarding the relocation of the civilian airport. We regret that this has led to the postponement of the civilian airport relocation and the suspension of discussions on the military airport relocation, resulting in the failure to implement the agreements between the two cities and provinces."

Gwangju City and Jeonnam Province agreed on August 20, 2018, through the 'Gwangju-Jeonnam Win-Win Development Committee' to integrate the Gwangju civilian airport into Muan International Airport by 2021 and to jointly strive to secure national funding for infrastructure expansion.

Regarding the military airport relocation issue, they agreed to actively cooperate to find a reasonable method acceptable to the residents of the relocation area to ensure the early relocation of the military airport.

However, over the past two years, the military airport relocation issue has not even selected a preliminary relocation candidate site, leading Gwangju citizens, including the Gwangju City Council and civic groups, to oppose the 'civilian airport relocation first' approach.

Spokesperson Kim Yi-gang said, "Both cities and provinces strongly agree on the need to form a 'pan-government consultative body' led by the Prime Minister's Office and have proposed the launch of such a body to prepare groundbreaking policy alternatives and support at the national level." He added, "If the pan-government consultative body led by the Prime Minister's Office is formed, our city will actively support its operation and do our best to ensure that the military airport relocation issue, the region's biggest pending matter, is resolved early in the spirit of Gwangju-Jeonnam mutual growth and co-prosperity."

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