The Ministry of National Defense said on the 28th that it selected the area around Mangun-myeon, Muan County, South Jeolla Province, as a candidate site for the Gwangju military airport. The final relocation site will be confirmed after procedures such as a Muan County resident vote, an application to host, and deliberation by the relocation site selection committee.
The Ministry of National Defense held the "2nd Gwangju military airport relocation site selection committee" at its Yongsan headquarters in Seoul on the day and made the decision.
This selection of a candidate site is a follow-up measure to the agreement reached in December last year by a six-party consultative body—comprising the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, South Jeolla Province, Gwangju City and Muan County—on the integrated transfer of the civil-military airport. The Ministry of National Defense in April selected the Mangun-myeon area as a preliminary relocation candidate site and, through the first relocation site selection committee, approved the criteria and procedures for selecting the site.
The Ministry of National Defense said the selection criteria consisted of institutional validity and social consensus. A ministry official said, "In terms of institutional validity, after each agency reviewed Air Force operational performance and matters requiring permits under relevant laws, there were no items deemed impossible at this stage." The ministry viewed the conditional consent of the Muan County head, the head of the competent local government, as meeting the requirement for social consensus.
With the site selected as a candidate, the military airport relocation project is set to enter a full-fledged implementation phase. The Ministry of National Defense plans to draw up a support plan for the surrounding relocation area and hold a resident vote, then reflect the results to select the final relocation site. Under current law, if the Muan County head faithfully reflects the vote results and applies to host, the final site is decided after deliberation by the relocation site selection committee.
Along with the follow-up procedures, the government also unveiled a plan to flesh out a "1 trillion won+α" support package for Muan County's regional development and resident support. The aim is to add national-level support to the 1 trillion won package agreed to by the six-party consultative body.
To that end, a relocation project support committee chaired by the Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination will be formed and operated. The support committee will identify projects that residents can feel, such as improving living conditions and the residential environment and building a base for local industry and jobs, and will check the implementation status of related agencies.
Minister Ahn Gyu-baek of the Ministry of National Defense said, "This selection of a relocation candidate site is a historic step not only in resolving a local issue that has continued for decades, but also for balanced regional development," adding, "We will carry out the remaining relocation procedures transparently together with Muan County residents."