Choi Yu-cheol, chief of Uiseong-gun in North Gyeongsang Province (left), and Kim Jin-yeol, chief of Gunwi-gun in Daegu. [Provided by Gunwi-gun]
Choi Yu-cheol, chief of Uiseong-gun in North Gyeongsang Province (left), and Kim Jin-yeol, chief of Gunwi-gun in Daegu. [Provided by Gunwi-gun]

Kim Jin-yeol, chief of Daegu's Gunwi-gun, and Choi Yu-cheol, chief of North Gyeongsang Province's Uiseong-gun, met in Gunwi-gun on Wednesday to discuss joint measures for the successful construction and normalization of the Daegu-North Gyeongsang new airport project.

The meeting was called as the project — the region's most pressing issue — has failed to gain the momentum originally expected, largely due to unresolved questions over how to finance the military airport component. The two chiefs agreed that close cooperation between their jurisdictions is especially critical, given that the project spans Sobo-myeon in Gunwi-gun and Bian-myeon in Uiseong-gun.

The project had been advancing through key procedural steps: the Defense Ministry approved the military airport development plan in January last year, followed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's announcement of the basic plan for the civilian airport in December of the same year. Prolonged discussions over how to fund the military airport have since stalled overall progress.

The civilian airport has also been affected. Under a policy linking the civilian and military airport schedules, disbursement of already-secured funds and follow-on steps such as compensation and design work have been delayed, raising concerns about the entire project timeline.

Residents in the planned relocation zone have grown increasingly inconvenienced by the delays. The area is subject to restrictions on development activity and other regulations that limit land use and the exercise of property rights, creating significant obstacles to everyday life and economic activity, including home construction and renovation.

With the compensation schedule now uncertain, anxiety and fatigue among residents have been mounting, and calls for an accelerated project push and a concrete compensation timeline are growing louder.

At Wednesday's meeting, the two chiefs discussed a wide range of solutions under the shared goal of getting the new airport project back on track, focusing on pressing issues including improvements to the project management framework, military airport financing, coordination of civilian and military airport schedules, and resident compensation.

Kim raised the need to keep all options open on financing the military airport rather than being confined to existing approaches. "We need to broadly examine new financing methods — such as establishing a fund with public and private participation — as one of the possibilities," he said. "Rather than relying on any single approach, we need to think together about various ways to get the project moving."

"Now is the time for a shift in thinking, rather than being bound by conventional methods," Kim added. "Above all, we must quickly make the compensation process for the civilian airport visible and tangible, so that residents who have long endured inconvenience under various regulations can actually feel that the project is moving forward."

Choi proposed designating Daegu Metropolitan City and North Gyeongsang Province as joint project operators and having them proceed first, as the key alternative to overcoming the delay. If the two metropolitan governments directly participate as co-operators and share the military airport costs, a stable foundation for the project would be established, allowing the long-standing property rights restrictions on residents to be resolved quickly.

"The Daegu-North Gyeongsang new airport is a core project that will sustain Uiseong, Gunwi, and indeed all of Daegu and North Gyeongsang for the next hundred years — but it cannot be built on the one-sided sacrifice of residents," Choi said. "On the basis of solid cooperation with Gunwi-gun, we will pursue every available measure, including the designation of joint project operators, to achieve early groundbreaking and protect residents' property rights."

The meeting also prompted both chiefs to express strong agreement on the need for a four-way summit bringing together the mayor of Daegu, the governor of North Gyeongsang Province, and the chiefs of both Uiseong-gun and Gunwi-gun.


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com