South Korea President Lee orders Gwangju Air Base cleared for chip complex by mid-2028

President Lee Jae Myung ordered the Defense Ministry on Monday to move Gwangju Air Base's operations to another military airfield by mid-2028 so that work can start early on a semiconductor complex planned for the site.

Lee gave the instruction at the second public-private review meeting on the government's three mega projects, held at the Blue House.

"This is a situation where we have to go beyond a war of speed and fight a blitz," Lee said.

"What matters most at this stage is the site and the infrastructure," he said. "The three areas at the center of this are the Gwangju and Jeolla provinces, the Gyeongsang provinces and the Chungcheong provinces. Of those, I would like the semiconductor cluster in the Gwangju and Jeolla provinces executed quickly, at a speed no less than Kumamoto in Japan."

Kumamoto is where TSMC built and opened a chip plant in under two years, breaking ground in April 2022 and holding its opening ceremony in February 2024.

Each region has been paired with an industry: a semiconductor cluster in the Gwangju and Jeolla provinces, advanced industries in the Chungcheong provinces and physical AI in the Gyeongsang provinces. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix said in June that they would put up 400 trillion won each, or 800 trillion won ($568.2 billion) in total, to build four chip fabrication plants on the Gwangju Air Base site.

The Gwangju base, home to the Air Force's 1st Fighter Wing, was picked as the cluster site at the first review meeting in July. Where its aircraft go is still unsettled, and Lee's instruction is for a temporary move rather than the permanent relocation that Gwangju and Muan County have been arguing over.

"I would like measures taken so that the Gwangju base's functions are temporarily moved to another military airfield by the middle of 2028 and the site can be used early as a semiconductor industrial complex," Lee told the Defense Ministry.

Lee also asked for work to begin on nearby land without waiting for the base to move.

"Even before the temporary move, do everything you can so that the industrial complex can break ground early on land near the base," Lee said. "Push the related procedures all at once to cut the time required sharply, and keep improving regulations so that execution happens as fast as possible."

Lee also called for power and water supply to be readied without disruption, and for faster legislation.

"We need to communicate closely with the National Assembly and move faster on enacting and amending the relevant laws," he said.

The next 12 months, Lee said, will decide whether the projects work.

"It always takes the most effort to push the first pedal," he said. "We are at the threshold of Korea's golden age. Treat the next year as the critical window and give it everything you have."

Lee framed the projects as a redrawing of Korea's industrial map around the provinces.

"The final goal of the mega projects is to widen the axis of growth to the whole country and to redraw the map of our most advanced industries around the regions," he said. "We also need to prepare measures in advance to prevent the polarization of K-shaped growth."

He pushed back on the idea that the money should stop at the largest companies.

"National investment and support must not be confined to the companies or industries covered by the three mega projects," Lee said. "We absolutely need a strategy for an industrial leap that supports the whole ecosystem, including materials, parts and equipment, and that turns advances in physical AI into stronger manufacturing and AI transition capability."

He closed with a demand aimed at his own government.

"For companies' large-scale investment to proceed without a hitch, the government has to go beyond leading innovation and become a model of innovation itself," Lee said.

https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/korea/lee-orders-gwangju-air-base-cleared-for-chip-complex-by-mid2028/12816966