Hard to Accept Agreement Termination Between Two Cities Excluding Muan County

All Residents of Muan Continue to Strongly Oppose Military Airport Relocation

Muang County in Jeonnam has expressed displeasure as the promise to relocate Gwangju's civilian airport to Muan, promoted as a win-win project by Jeonnam Province and Gwangju City, has been effectively broken after five years.

According to the county on the 11th, Jeonnam Governor Kim Young-rok and Gwangju Mayor Kang Ki-jung held a meeting in Gwangju on the afternoon of the 10th and agreed that both cities and provinces would actively cooperate on the issue of relocating the Gwangju military airport.

(On the right) Gwangju Mayor Kang Ki-jung and (on the left) Jeonnam Governor Kim Young-rok are shaking hands before the start of a meeting on the issue of relocating Gwangju Military Airport on the 10th.
[Photo by Jeonnam Province]

On the same day, Gwangju City and Jeonnam Province confirmed support projects for the relocation area through a joint statement and agreed to discuss noise issues, relocation measures, and regional development plans, and to jointly hold briefings and public hearings in the expected hosting areas.

After reading the joint statement, Governor Kim Young-rok stated that the three-party agreement on the relocation of the civilian airport among Gwangju City, Jeonnam Province, and Muan County in 2018 has been "effectively broken."

Governor Kim said, "At that time, the intention was that if the civilian airport was prioritized and sent to Jeonnam Province, there would be active cooperation on the military airport issue. However, later Gwangju said that since the military airport issue was not resolved, the civilian airport could not be sent," adding, "In fact, the agreement is no different from being broken."

However, while deciding to discuss the civilian airport issue separately, the relocation of Gwangju's civilian airport to Muan, agreed upon in 2018, was effectively declared null and void.

In response, Muan County stated in an official statement released on the 11th, "It is politically and morally very difficult to accept that the two cities and provinces formalized the breaking of the agreement excluding Muan County, a party to the agreement," and added, "We cannot trust any promises regarding the military airport relocation area, and all residents of Muan County are firmly opposed to the military airport relocation."

Muan = Oh Hwan-joo, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy ohj1358@asiae.co.kr

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