President Lee Jae-myung on the 15th visited TK (Daegu and North Gyeongsang) and met in succession with an elementary school teacher and classmates, officials at the Daegu-Gyeongbuk integrated new airport construction site, and farmers who had begun rice planting. Starting with a surprise visit to Namdaemun Market on the 8th, he went on to a shipbuilding roundtable in Ulsan and a visit to Dong-gu Nammok Maseong Market, then grocery shopping at Moran Market in Seongnam, and in TK he also carried out four back-to-back events.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, on this day the president visited areas in Gunwi, Daegu, and Uiseong, North Gyeongsang, the planned site for the Daegu-Gyeongbuk integrated new airport, inspected the site, and then heard briefings from Daegu City and the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on progress and future plans, and on the status of the transfer of the military airport and the civil airport.
The new airport project is to transfer Daegu International Airport in Dong-gu, Daegu, and the military airport (Daegu Air Base) to the Gunwi and Uiseong areas. In Aug. 2020, the two regions were finally selected as the site for the integrated airport transfer. To account for resident harm from noise and height restrictions, the project aims to move the urban military airport to the outskirts and strengthen national security capabilities through technological modernization. The target opening is 2030, but it is being delayed due to funding issues.
A Daegu City official said, "In the process of raising massive funding, an excessive burden of financing costs is occurring, and risks from the project's prolongation are concentrating on Daegu City," adding, "At least minimal national support is needed for stable project implementation." In response, the president said, "I find it very regrettable that project implementation is being delayed due to funding issues," and asked on-site officials about the scale of additional costs and the fiscal burden arising from the project's prolongation.
Before the site inspection that day, the president met for lunch in his hometown of Andong, North Gyeongsang, with Park Byung-gi, his elementary school teacher, and fellow alumni from Samgye Elementary School. He then moved to Gunwi, Daegu, helped with rice planting in a rural area, and held a snack-time roundtable with farmers. After emphasizing advanced agriculture and smart farm development using artificial intelligence (AI), robots, Autonomous Driving, and drones, the president personally tried an autonomous rice transplanter and also observed a drone pest control demonstration.
This "wide-ranging" move came as the political world is waging an all-out battle in each region ahead of the local elections on the 3rd of next month. Earlier, on the 13th, after finishing a K-shipbuilding roundtable in Ulsan, the president made an unscheduled visit to Nammok Maseong Market, and the next day he also visited the Saemaul Central Association in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, held a roundtable, and then headed to Moran Market to meet citizens.