President Lee Jae-myung ordered officials on Tuesday to bring forward the temporary relocation of Gwangju Air Base, saying the current mid-2028 target was too late for a semiconductor industrial complex planned on the site.
Lee told the Ministry of National Defense to re-examine the schedule and move it up as much as possible, even if that meant amending laws, regulations or guidelines, senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung told reporters at a briefing at the presidential office.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
Kang said Lee made the comments at the third public-private review meeting on the government’s megaprojects, which he chairs monthly and which brought together the finance, industry, land, defense, culture and education ministries along with executives from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The presidential office said no new relocation date had been set.
Lee had already pushed the ministry to move faster once before. At the second review meeting on August 10, he ordered the base’s functions temporarily shifted to other military airfields by mid-2028, calling for construction on the freed land to begin even before the move was complete, according to the Korea Herald. Seven weeks later, he told officials that date, too, was too slow.
The base sits on land earmarked for a semiconductor cluster in the southwestern Honam region, part of a mega-project plan the government unveiled in June involving more than $576 billion in investment commitments from Samsung and SK hynix, according to reporting cited by the Korea Herald. At the August meeting Lee said the Honam cluster should move at least as fast as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant in Kumamoto, Japan, which he noted was completed 22 months after construction began, and called for what he described as “a blitz” rather than merely a race for speed.
Gwangju Air Base is a joint civilian-military airfield and one of five collocated operating bases designated for use by U.S. Air Force units during a regional contingency, a factor that adds complexity to any relocation timetable, according to the Korea Herald.
At Tuesday’s meeting, held for the first time since the presidential office created a senior secretary post for national strategic investment, Lee also received reports from the industry, land and climate-energy ministries on progress supplying power and water to the planned semiconductor site.
On broader living conditions around mega-project sites, Lee cited the country’s earlier innovation-city program, in which relocated families were reluctant to move with workers, and said industrial and residential planning needed to be combined from the start of a project, according to Kang. He asked officials reviewing proposals for a domed stadium and an arena in the region to focus on demand surveys and cost-effectiveness.
Companies at the meeting also raised concerns about hiring foreign workers, Kang said. Lee responded by asking the government to consider expanding the list of universities recognized under the K-Tech Pass program, which grants a fast-track F-2-T residency visa to highly skilled foreign talent in fields such as semiconductors.
Under existing rules, K-Tech Pass eligibility requires a master’s or doctoral degree from one of the world’s top 100 engineering schools or work experience at one of the world’s top 500 companies. Visa holders can receive approval within two weeks online, a 50% income tax reduction for up to 10 years and access to foreign schools for their children. The industry ministry introduced additional qualitative-assessment tracks for the program in July, according to Korean media reports.
Kang said Lee told ministries it was now time to firm up budgets and funding sources for each project and to “move quickly to implementation” as one team under the new dedicated investment office.