Representatives from nine cities and counties along the truce-line border regions of Gangwon Province and Gyeonggi Province are holding a cooperation meeting Monday at the Yanggu-gun Lifelong Learning Center.
The second-half 2026 regular session of the Border Region Mayors and County Chiefs Council will focus on ways to resolve key issues facing frontier communities and promote shared development.
Attendees include Goseong-gun County Chief Ham Myeong-jun and representatives from Yanggu, Yeoncheon, Cheorwon, Inje, Ganghwa, Ongjin, Gimpo and Hwacheon.
The main agenda items are the early construction of an east-west peace expressway; a special project to stabilize power supply to the five West Sea islands; the early return of a naval base and expansion of Seonjinpo Port; permission for farming on national and public land within river levees along national and local waterways in border areas; improvements to the process for pushing the civilian control line northward; long-term leasing of unused Ministry of National Defense military land to fund an energy basic income for border-area residents; reform of the local allocation tax system in connection with a future response fund; and expanded funding for border-area support projects along with differentiated support that reflects the security burden borne by these communities.
Yanggu-gun, as the host, will put forward two proposals: establishing a special support framework for regions that have sacrificed for national development, and a request to apply fiscal exemptions for financially vulnerable areas in connection with the creation of a new future response fund.
The first proposal calls for strengthening national-level support — including local allocation tax grants and social overhead capital investment — for areas such as border regions and dam-adjacent communities that have long endured regulations and sacrifices in the name of national security and infrastructure.
The second proposal seeks to create a fiscal compensation mechanism so that border regions already in weak financial condition are not further disadvantaged by a reduction in local allocation tax revenue resulting from the new fund. It would also establish a legal basis for giving priority support to border and population-declining areas.
Meanwhile, the Border Region Mayors and County Chiefs Council has pursued a range of activities since its founding in 2008, including pushing for regulatory reforms and policy recommendations to address shared challenges and advance residents' rights.
Yanggu-gun County Chief Kim Wang-gyu, who is hosting the meeting, said border communities "have endured many restrictions and sacrifices over a long period for the sake of national security and national development," adding that "national-level support and institutional consideration commensurate with those sacrifices are needed, and going forward the border cities and counties will actively respond to shared challenges together to bring about tangible changes that residents can feel."
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