Southeast Gateway Airport Promotion Committee Demands Resignation of 'Gimhae Airport Verification Committee Chair' from Prime Minister's Office

Statement Condemning the Unfair Intervention of the Verification Committee

Statement announced by the Southeast Gateway Airport Promotion Committee on the 28th.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The Southeast Region Gateway Airport Promotion Committee (Co-Chairman Heo Yong-do) condemned the unfair interference of the verification committee chairman regarding the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's (MOLIT) Gimhae Airport expansion plan currently under review at the Prime Minister's Office on the 28th, and demanded his resignation.

The Promotion Committee also issued a statement protesting the violation of fairness by the verification committee on the same day.

In the statement, the Promotion Committee emphasized that the residents of the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (Bu-Ul-Gyeong) region patiently waited for 10 months despite MOLIT's unreasonable additional simulation requests after the Prime Minister's Office enforced the verification of MOLIT's Gimhae Airport expansion plan, based on their belief and trust that the Prime Minister's Office would produce a certified verification result.

However, during the full meeting of the verification committee held on the 25th, although the majority of the safety subcommittee members concluded that there were serious issues with the return flight procedures, the verification committee chairman, who was supposed to remain neutral, instructed the revision of the report to suit MOLIT's preferences and put the revised report to a vote. This was strongly criticized as an act that undermines fairness, the top policy value of the current government, and denies the Republic of Korea.

As a result, the trust and belief of the 8 million residents of Bu-Ul-Gyeong sent to the Prime Minister's Office were shattered. The chairman's behavior, acting as a spokesperson for MOLIT, was condemned as not merely an individual deviation but a wrongful overreach and violence by MOLIT aimed at endorsing the unipolarization of the metropolitan area and obstructing the development of non-metropolitan regions.

The Promotion Committee urgently called for the immediate resignation of Verification Committee Chairman Kim Soo-sam to ensure proper new airport construction and the establishment of a fair Republic of Korea.

They also demanded that the Prime Minister exercise his authority to dismiss the verification committee chairman.

They urged the Prime Minister to personally oversee the process from now until the announcement of the results to ensure fairness and transparency, as promised during the National Assembly's government questioning session, and to comprehensively reflect the entire verification process in the final report, including each subcommittee's report, the progress and voting procedures of the full meeting, and the content of the safety subcommittee report prior to revisions.

Given that this incident clearly proved that MOLIT's Gimhae Airport expansion plan has many safety issues, they strongly requested that the Prime Minister's Office announce the construction of Gadeok New Airport together with the final results.

Co-Chairman Heo Yong-do stated, "If MOLIT insists on the Gimhae Airport expansion plan recklessly, even at the cost of undermining fairness, despite the known serious safety issues, it could be misunderstood that the current government has no interest in the development of non-metropolitan areas."

Heo further argued, "As the 8 million residents of Bu-Ul-Gyeong have recently united their will for the new airport construction that has caused regional division for over 20 years, the Prime Minister's Office should open a way for MOLIT to abandon the Gimhae Airport expansion plan through a fair verification result announcement and make a policy decision to confirm the construction of Gadeok New Airport based on this."