Andong and Yecheon County Council Chairpersons Also Say "Strongly Opposed"

Andong City (Mayor Kwon Ki-chang) and Yecheon County (County Governor Kim Hak-dong) jointly issued a statement opposing the Daegu-Gyeongbuk administrative integration on the morning of the 18th in front of Daedong Hall at Andong City Hall, ahead of the Northern Region briefing session on the Daegu-Gyeongbuk administrative integration.

Andong and Yecheon, sharing the common denominator of the Gyeongbuk Provincial Government New Town, issued a joint statement opposing the promotion of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk administrative integration, which raises concerns about the decline of the New Town, aiming to widely publicize the urgency of the northern region including the Gyeongbuk Provincial Government New Town.

Residents of Andong and Yecheon areas are shouting against the administrative integration of Daegu and Gyeongbuk together with Kwon Ki-chang, Mayor of Andong (left podium), and Kim Hak-dong, Governor of Yecheon (right podium).

Mayor Kwon Ki-chang of Andong and County Governor Kim Hak-dong of Yecheon, through the statement, voiced opposition to the administrative integration that deceives residents under the pretext of central authority decentralization, opposition to the administrative integration that assumes merely increasing size will solve low birth rates and local extinction, and opposition to the superficial plan for creating an administrative-centered complex city in the northern region.

They criticized that if Daegu and Gyeongbuk integrate, the authority of basic local governments will be absorbed by the metropolitan local government, which could rather hinder local autonomy, and that the idea of an administrative-centered complex city without a main office building, with the integrated government office likely to be located in Daegu, is an absurd vision.

Following the joint statement by the Mayor of Andong and the County Governor of Yecheon, Kim Kyung-do, Chairman of the Andong City Council, and Kang Young-gu, Chairman of the Yecheon County Council, also jointly issued a statement.

The city and county council chairpersons strongly urged the immediate cessation of the administrative integration process without the consent of the residents, stating that the Daegu-Gyeongbuk administrative integration can never be a solution to overcome the crisis of local extinction.

Meanwhile, voices opposing the administrative integration are gradually rising in the Andong and Yecheon areas. Andong City held two rallies opposing the administrative integration on the 8th and 13th, gathering residents' opinions against the integration, and on the 15th, participated in a briefing session held in Gyeongsan where they held a protest against the integration.

In Yecheon, a Daegu-Gyeongbuk Administrative Integration Opposition Residents' Briefing was held on the 15th. About 200 people, including the County Governor, the County Council Chairman, and residents, gathered to collect various opposing opinions regarding the procedures and processes related to the administrative integration.

Mayor Kwon Ki-chang and County Governor Kim Hak-dong stated, “It has not even been 10 years since the provincial government was relocated, yet we firmly oppose the administrative integration which has not properly gathered residents' opinions,” and added, “We will unite the will of the cities and counties in the Gyeongbuk region to definitely block this plan.”