South Jeolla-Gwangju Special City Mayor Min Hyeong-bae and Muan-gun County Chief Kim San met to discuss the relocation of the Gwangju military airport.
The two officials held a closed-door meeting at a restaurant in Muan on Saturday afternoon to discuss key issues surrounding the relocation.
At the meeting, Min and Kim exchanged candid views on the relocation of the Gwangju military airport, the three preconditions for relocation put forward by Muan-gun, and the reopening of Muan International Airport.
Muan-gun has said it will join relocation talks on the condition that three prerequisites are met: the prior transfer of Gwangju's civilian airport to Muan Airport, fiscal support of 1 trillion won ($705 million), and the establishment of a national industrial complex.
Min and Kim confirmed they had no fundamental disagreements on the timing, scale or pace of resolving the outstanding issues.
Both pledged to cooperate actively, noting that the ultimate goal of resolving these issues is the successful development of a semiconductor cluster in the southwestern region.
"We warmly welcome the construction of a national-level semiconductor fab that will dramatically develop our region," Kim said, adding that Muan-gun would actively participate in a five-party consultative body on the military airport relocation "to achieve a win-win outcome between Muan-gun's requests and the national project."
Min said the semiconductor cluster development and the military airport relocation needed to move forward in tandem. "I hope to meet frequently going forward and find a solution that works for everyone," he said.
sij@heraldcorp.com
