Jogyuil Jinju Mayor Strongly Demands Cancellation of Gukgiyeon Department Relocation During Visit to Defense Acquisition Program Administration

"Request to Return the 1st Phase 2022 Transferred Departments to Jinju"

On January 31, Jo Gyu-il, Mayor of Jinju City, Gyeongnam Province, visited the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and met with Eom Dong-hwan, Administrator of DAPA, to strongly demand the complete cancellation of the planned relocation of the Acquisition Research Department, a core division of the Defense Technology Promotion Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as DTPRI), a public institution located in Jinju, to Daejeon.

Public institutions located in the Seoul metropolitan area were confirmed to relocate to provincial areas in July 2005 under Article 18 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development (currently the Special Act on Local Autonomy Decentralization and Regional Balanced Development) to resolve regional imbalances and achieve balanced national development.

At that time, the predecessor of DTPRI, the Defense Quality Control Office, was confirmed to relocate to Gyeongnam Province. Subsequently, the organization was expanded to the Defense Technology Quality Institute, and from May 2014, it relocated to Jinju and commenced operations.

DTPRI, an affiliated institution of the Defense Technology Quality Institute under DAPA, was established in 2021 within the Jinju Innovation City in Gyeongnam. Centered around two headquarters, DTPRI consists of 12 departments and centers. On May 2022, one department (Innovation Technology Research Department ? 2 teams, about 30 personnel) was relocated to Daejeon. Now, less than two years later, another department (Acquisition Research Department ? 3 teams, 49 personnel) is preparing to relocate to Daejeon again.

Joo Kyu-il, Mayor of Jinju City.

Upon learning this, Jinju City and local community organizations strongly opposed the relocation of DTPRI departments without any discussion with the local community, actively opposing the relocation through visits to related institutions, one-person relay protests, rallies, and demonstrations.

During the meeting with Administrator Eom, Mayor Jo explained, “The re-relocation of public institutions that have already moved to innovation cities to other regions contradicts the purpose and intent of the Innovation City Act (Special Act on the Creation and Development of Innovation Cities) aimed at balanced national development. This also violates the Local Autonomy Decentralization and Balanced Development Act. Setting that aside, DTPRI’s arbitrary interpretation of the law and consideration of department relocation without review is causing significant controversy in the local community.” He added, “If partial relocations to regions other than the metropolitan area are allowed, all public institutions in innovation cities nationwide will attempt similar moves. This would undermine the foundation of innovation cities.”

He continued, “For the establishment and development of the national vision of the ‘Local Era,’ this relocation of DTPRI departments must be completely canceled,” and demanded, “Please restore the one department that moved to Daejeon in May 2022 back to Jinju.”

Meanwhile, if a relocated public institution changes its originally approved relocation plan, it must obtain review by the Local Era Committee and approval from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport according to Article 4 of the Innovation City Act. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s guidelines on ‘Post-Management Measures for Relocated Public Institutions’ only stipulate review of plan changes in cases of new organization establishment in the metropolitan area, increase in remaining personnel, or new facility construction, i.e., only when re-relocating back to the metropolitan area.

In this regard, on January 26, Mayor Jo met with Park Sang-woo, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and requested a strong response from the Ministry, stating, “The relocation of DTPRI departments to other regions violates the purpose of national land balanced development and must never happen; legal amendments are necessary.”

Minister Park responded, “While legal amendments will certainly be pursued, since they take a long time, this DTPRI case is a serious issue that undermines the fundamental purpose of nationwide innovation city development, so we will actively review and respond to it.”