MUAN — "Muan residents are not an obstacle to regional development. They are not sacrificial victims of national policy. And they are not people for politicians to persuade and push around at will."
Anger is growing among residents of Muan County, who stand to bear the heaviest burden behind the sweeping agenda of a semiconductor cluster in the Honam region. Residents say the political push to accelerate the relocation of a military air base without any guarantees, and even to float an unverified plan for sharing a runway, amounts to a one-way demand that they alone make sacrifices.
The Citizens' Committee on the Relocation of the Gwangju Military Air Base to Muan said in a statement on the 21st that "remarks treating the air base relocation as a foregone conclusion while excluding the will of Muan residents are dividing the local community." Singling out lawmakers Song Young-gil and Park Sun-won, the committee said it "condemns conduct that demands one-sided sacrifice from Muan residents without any guarantees." The group called for a public apology from the two lawmakers and an end to discussions of an early relocation that has not been verified.
According to the committee, a plan for an early relocation premised on sharing runways between the military air base and the civilian airport was raised at a forum hosted by lawmakers Song Young-gil and Yang Boo-nam on the 5th of this month. On the 15th, Park Sun-won said on a broadcast program, referring to Muan County's demands, that "they say, give us 1 trillion won first, set preconditions," and urged residents to "welcome this with a broader perspective."
The committee pushed back, saying the "1 trillion won in support is not a condition Muan County is throwing a fit over, but an official promise made to Muan residents by the national and local governments." The group said the relevant support was spelled out in a joint statement issued by a six-party consultative body convened by the Presidential Office on Dec. 17, 2025. It criticized the lawmaker's framing, saying that "describing a demand that the state carry out what it promised in writing as haggling over money up front is a distortion of the facts and an insult to residents."
The committee also took issue with Park's remarks about population. "The fact that Muan has a population of 95,000 is no reason to treat the life and safety of the region lightly," the committee said. "The dignity and safety of citizens must not be weighed by head count."
The group also strongly objected to the early relocation plan based on runway sharing that was raised by Song. "Having fighter jets and passenger aircraft use the same runway is directly tied to aviation safety, military operations, noise and environmental damage," the committee said. "This is not a matter to be pushed forward without sufficient verification." It added that "Muan International Airport is a place where the pain of the Dec. 29 disaster remains," and that "a rush that puts safety aside reopens the wounds of the victims, their families and residents."
The committee stressed that whether to accept the air base relocation must be decided directly by Muan residents through a referendum. It said that politicians speaking as if the relocation were already settled, or citing an early relocation timeline, disregards local self-governance and democratic procedure.
The committee also urged the government to disclose a concrete implementation plan for its three core demands before any referendum is held. The three demands are the prior relocation of Gwangju's civilian airport, support worth 1 trillion won, and sweeping incentives at the national level.
"Demanding that residents make a decision when the timing, funding and responsible parties for implementation have not been clearly laid out puts things in the wrong order," the committee said. "Muan residents are not opposing regional development. They are refusing one-sided sacrifice."