JEONNAM-GWANGJU — Anger in Mokpo over the recommendation of Sunchon National University as the candidate for a new national medical school in Jeonnam — edging out Mokpo National University by 1.3 points — has spilled into the metropolitan council.
Council members from Mokpo in the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special Metropolitan Council grilled Mayor Min Hyung-bae during two days of policy questioning on the 13th and 14th, focusing on the fairness of the selection process and the effectiveness of healthcare measures for the southwest region. Two questions dominated: whether the process that eliminated Mokpo National University was fair, and whether any plan exists to address the healthcare gap in the southwest.
Rep. Jeon Kyung-seon of the Democratic Party, representing Mokpo District 5, opened the offensive. Jeon raised the sense of deprivation felt by residents of Mokpo and the southwest region, who have waited 36 years for a national medical school. Noting that the southwest region's many islands can delay emergency patient transfers during bad weather, Jeon asked, "Are you going to tell residents who have waited 36 years to just wait again?" Jeon called for a self-sufficient regional healthcare system, stronger essential and public medical services, improved emergency transport systems and expanded medical infrastructure.
The same day, Rep. Choi Sun-kook of the Democratic Party, representing Mokpo District 1, took issue with the thinness of follow-up measures. Choi pointed out that the Southwest Region Development Strategy Task Force had held only four internal meetings. Choi also criticized the Southwest Region Great Leap Initiative as a rehash of existing projects such as shipbuilding and offshore wind power. In particular, Choi pressed that while attracting one of the country's top five hospitals, using public resources and strengthening the functions of Mokpo Medical Center had been mentioned, no concrete healthcare measures for the western area had been laid out.
Min responded that the city was reviewing options including upgrading Mokpo Medical Center to the level of a tertiary general hospital, saying in effect that "we should not limit our imagination." Choi shot back, "This is not the time to imagine but the time to produce concrete alternatives."
The following day, Rep. Park Moon-ok of the Democratic Party, representing Mokpo District 3, took the floor. Park dug into the procedural fairness of the recommendation process. Park questioned on what legal basis a written pledge to provide land, submitted by Sunchon National University, was accepted as proof of a right to use the site. Park also challenged the grounds for simultaneously applying the ownership requirement under the regulations on university establishment and operation and the right-to-use standard borrowed from ASK 2026, the medical education accreditation criteria.
In response, Min explained that the exercise "was not a review of a medical school establishment but a comparative evaluation to recommend a candidate university." Min also countered that three rounds of legal review had been conducted. Park, however, demanded an additional legal review, saying, "Simply saying it was borrowed does not resolve the question of grounds."
The exchange also turned heated over whether to refer the issues to the Ministry of Education for review. When Park asked whether the mayor would pass the objections on to the ministry, Min replied, "I have no intention of doing so. It is more effective when those raising the issue do it themselves." Park objected immediately. "If citizens say the administration has erred, shouldn't the administration answer?" Park asked. Min said another legal review would be conducted once materials were submitted.
The clashes did not stop at the medical school issue.
Jeon criticized Min for disregarding the council's judgment in handling a reorganization plan. "The council is not a rubber stamp for the executive branch," Jeon said. "The council and the executive are two wheels of the same cart." A dispute over project funding for council members also surfaced. Disclosing a text message indicating an offer of special grant funding, Jeon demanded, "Is 100 million won pocket money? Is it petty cash?" Min said he had not been aware of the contents of the message.
Rep. Choi Jung-hoon of the Democratic Party, representing Mokpo District 4 and chairman of the council's education committee, pressed the mayor over 100 billion won in unpaid statutory transfers to the provincial education office and the scaling back of functions at the Muan government complex. Min said full funding would be difficult to secure in this year's final supplementary budget given the city's fiscal situation, adding that the city would also consider including it in next year's main budget.
Mokpo's local community is not backing down either.
The city of Mokpo, National Assembly members from the southwest region, local councils, Mokpo National University and civic groups issued a joint statement on the 14th calling for the illegality and unfairness in the candidate selection process to be corrected.
They stressed that the Gwangju District Court's dismissal of a request to suspend the decision did not amount to recognizing the legality of the recommendation process. They demanded that the Ministry of Education accept Mokpo National University's application and review it fairly. They urged the Board of Audit and Inspection to launch a public-interest audit. They asked the courts for a fair ruling in the main lawsuit and in an immediate appeal.
Mokpo does not see the matter as a simple competition to host a university. It views the issue as an eruption of residents' right to life, the healthcare vacuum in the southwest region and the sense of deprivation accumulated over 36 years.
The resentment surrounding the national medical school recommendation has now moved beyond a dispute over administrative procedure into a head-on collision between Mayor Min and Mokpo's political establishment.