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Transport ministry faces growing calls to retract plan on 2nd Jeju airport
A panoramic view of the site for a new international airport on Jeju Island / Korea Times file
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is facing growing calls to rescind a plan to build a new international airport on the southern resort island of Jeju after opponents of the plan outnumbered supporters in an opinion poll of residents.
Nine local news outlets commissioned Gallup Korea to conduct the poll to ask the residents' view of the government's move to build the second airport on the island.
The result of the poll of about 2,000 residents, announced Thursday, showed that 47 percent opposed the plan, while 44.1 percent were in favor. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
In a separate poll by Embrain Public, 51.1 percent were against the plan, while 43.8 percent supported it. This poll had a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 2.19 percentage points.
However, residents of Seongsan, the town selected as the site for the second airport, were overwhelmingly in favor of the project, according to separate surveys by the same pollsters.
“The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport earlier vowed to respect and accept the result of the opinion poll, and reflect it in its policy,” Kang Won-bo, who heads a local civic group that opposes the new airport, said during a news conference held in front of the office of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Friday. “The ministry should go back to square one with the second airport plan.”
The civic group instead called on the ministry to build additional terminals at the existing Jeju International Airport and improve public transportation.
The minor progressive opposition Justice Party also asked Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong and the transport ministry to retract the plan.
“The result of the opinion poll reflected the residents' view that the development without thought for the environment will harm their quality of life,” the party said in a statement.
The ministry, however, appeared to be taking a cautious attitude regarding the result of the poll.
“We need more time to announce our position as we need to analyze the response rate and other factors of the poll,” an official said.
For his part, Jeju Governor Won said, “I expect the ministry to make a wise decision.”
The project for the second Jeju airport has been stalled amid resistance from local residents and environmental activists since November 2015 when the ministry first announced the plan.