“Don’t Push Ahead With the Project, Put It to a National Referendum”

Senior dignitaries from various walks of life issued a statement suggesting the government’s plan to unilaterally and forcibly relocate the administrative capital should be reconsidered.

About 10 social dignitaries including Rev. Song Wol-joo and Rev. Suh Kyung-suk said, “Pushing ahead with new administrative capital relocation with haste should be stopped,” through a statement during a press conference Thursday at the New International Hotel in central Seoul.

“Various circles of society have to discuss in full what the best measures to promote balanced regional development and to resolve Seoul’s overcrowding are,” they said, and added, “If the government is firmly determined to enforce it, a national referendum should be conducted.”

They pointed out the problems of the new capital, saying, “The establishment of the new administrative capital, which is a 40-minute trip from Seoul by high-speed rail, will hardly bring about population decentralization, and only cause traffic disturbances between Seoul and Chungcheong Province.”

They also criticized the government, saying, “Disputes over whether the capital relocation is a de facto transfer of the capital is not finalized, the situations after the reunification was not considered, and all the more, concrete discussions on measures to fund the project were not held.”

For population decentralization and balanced regional development, participants proposed measures including transferring a national tax to a regional tax, promoting regionally specialized industries, building high-speed rail in Jeolla Province, and moving major universities to the provinces.

“Crucial problems concerning people’s welfare such as economic recession, security instability, and the spread of the needy, are presently piling up,” they said, stating, “Now is not the situation under which we should hastily argue on the capital relocation project.”

A total of 140 senior dignitaries from various fields including Yoo Jang-sun, president of Sogang University, Park Young-sik, president of Kwangwoon University, and Sohn Bong-ho, chief director of Hansung University, signed their names to the statement.

Se-Jin Jung mint4a@donga.com