"The question of whether ownership of the university hospital site had been secured never existed in the first place."
Sunchon National University has moved to rebuff what it called unfounded speculation surrounding its selection as the candidate institution for a new national medical school in South Jeolla Province, as rival Mokpo National University continues to push back against the outcome.
Sunchon National University issued a statement Thursday saying it had held back from responding to various claims raised since its selection as the South Jeolla medical school candidate, not wanting the dispute to escalate into an inter-university or regional conflict. But it said it could no longer stay silent after inaccurate information continued to spread and a criminal complaint was filed against its president. "We concluded that remaining silent any longer would be a failure of our duty to our university community and to the people of this region," the statement said.
The university drew a line on what it described as the central grievance raised by Mokpo National University — whether Sunchon had secured ownership of the proposed university hospital site — saying the requirement simply did not exist.
Sunchon said the relevant item on the evaluation form published in advance by the Jeonnam Research Institute, which conducted the review, was "certainty of site and location secured" — not a requirement to own state land. "The plan was prepared taking into account the location, scale, method of securing the site — whether through renovation, expansion or new construction — and the projected availability date of 2030," the university said. "We were evaluated on that basis, and we are currently proceeding with the site transfer through lawful procedures in accordance with applicable laws and regulations."
The university also said that before the government formally approves the establishment of a medical school and assigns enrollment quotas, there is no mechanism by which a national university can acquire land using state funds, nor any legal basis to draw up such a budget. "Demanding that a candidate university own state land at the recommendation stage is something no national university could satisfy — and Mokpo National University is no exception," it said.
Sunchon said its description in the application of having "secured the site" was based on official documents, and that it had neither fabricated facts nor inflated them. It said it signed an MOU with Suncheon city and the Suncheon City Council on Aug. 12 for the establishment of a national medical school, followed on Aug. 28 by a written pledge from the city to provide the site free of charge — a document bearing the official seal of the Suncheon mayor. Consultations with the city council were also completed the same day. "The site security described during the evaluation was grounded in that MOU and pledge, and referred to the 'certainty of the securing plan' as required by the evaluation criteria," the university said.
Sunchon also pushed back point by point against claims it said were factually wrong regarding the qualifications of the evaluators and the adequacy of its construction plan.
The university said Mokpo National University had actually scored higher on the site evaluation, and that the evaluators were aware of both universities' site situations and had reflected them in their scores. "The claim that the evaluators were unaware of the site issues, or that they failed to apply deduction criteria for false entries, does not reflect the facts," it said.
Sunchon said it was simply untrue that the evaluators had been unaware that Sunchon scored lower on the site component but came out ahead in the overall total through its performance in other areas. "That premise itself is contrary to the facts," the university said.
The university said the site it proposed for the medical school in Jorye-dong, Suncheon covers 151,719 square meters, of which 151,521 square meters are owned by Suncheon city. It said the term "il-won" — used to describe the site — is a standard expression encompassing multiple land parcels, and that Mokpo's claim that "ownership of 70 percent of the planned site cannot be confirmed" was contradicted by a simple check of the land registry.
Sunchon also criticized as fabricated Mokpo's claim that Mokpo had proposed an 84-month (seven-year) construction timeline for its teaching hospital while Sunchon had proposed 60 months (five years).
"Mokpo claims that our plan to build a 500-bed university hospital in 60 months is not feasible, but that figure was simply reverse-calculated from our target opening date of 2032 — it does not appear anywhere in the documents we submitted to the integrated special city authority," Sunchon said. "The teaching hospital construction plan is not 60 months but 72 months."
The university also expressed regret that remarks made during the closed-door medical school evaluation had been disclosed publicly.
"The evaluation for candidate university selection was held in a closed session attended only by evaluators and representatives of the two universities, yet recorded material from that session has been leaked and excerpts have been made public," Sunchon said. "We are reviewing the circumstances of how that material was obtained and disclosed, and whether applicable laws and regulations were violated."
The university said its greatest concern was that a prolonged dispute between Sunchon and Mokpo could derail or delay the establishment of a national medical school in South Jeolla Province altogether. "It was not only the western region that waited 36 years for this," it said. "If false claims continue and the honor of our university community continues to be damaged, we will take whatever measures are necessary to protect the university and its members. We earnestly ask that this wasteful confrontation stop and that we work together to uphold our shared goal of opening in 2030."
Mokpo National University has filed an injunction request with the Gwangju District Court seeking to suspend the effect of the candidate site selection, with the first hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
parkds@heraldcorp.com
