"KTX-Eum Stop Reflects Residents' Hopes"... Gijang County Launches Banner Promotion Campaign

Five Town and Township Resident Representative Groups Compete to Take the Lead

Gijang-gun (Governor Jung Jongbok) announced on the 30th that, ahead of the announcement regarding the KTX-Eum stop station, all residents are participating in efforts to attract the stop station, including displaying banners expressing their strong desire for the station throughout the region.

Recently, representative organizations from the five towns and townships in the area?including the Residents' Autonomy Committee, Village Leaders' Council, Development Council, Bareuge Sangi Movement Committee, Sports Association, Saemaeul Leaders' Association, Saemaeul Women's Association, Saemaeul Council, Youth Federation, and the Korea Association of Future Agricultural Managers?have been putting up banners across Gijang-gun. Through these actions, the aspirations of Gijang-gun residents to attract the KTX-Eum stop station are being expressed on all fronts.

In addition, since March, the relay of "All-Residents Support Messages for Attraction" and "Performance Events for Attracting the Stop Station," which involve residents from all walks of life in the region, have been held dozens of times. The desire to attract the Eum Station is now spreading beyond Gijang-gun to the entire city of Busan.

The county plans to continue various attraction activities together with residents, consolidating strong determination for the KTX-Eum stop station and expressing it nationwide, pouring all efforts into the final stages of the campaign.

Jung Jongbok, Governor of Gijang-gun, emphasized, "Gijang-gun is geographically advantageous, located between Busan and Ulsan, and is home to the Osiria Tourist Complex, which attracts 10 million visitors annually, the nation's largest baseball theme park, and the Gijang Heavy Ion Therapy Center, a hub for cancer treatment in the southern region, as well as 13 industrial complexes in the area. Therefore, responding to large-scale transportation demand is urgently needed."

He added, "With the KTX-Eum stopping at Gijang-gun, the city railway and KTX will be connected as one, making Gijang-gun a key transportation hub. We will focus all administrative efforts until the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport makes its decision regarding the stop station."

Gijang-gun completed a feasibility study for the KTX-Eum stop station in 2022 and directly submitted a petition with 141,000 signatures from residents to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2023.