Mayor-elect Min calls for smooth semiconductor investment, constitutional reform push

Min Hyeong-bae, mayor-elect of the proposed South Jeolla-Gwangju Integrated Special City, said Friday he would use the new city as a springboard to revive momentum for constitutional reform.

Speaking at the Democratic Party of Korea's field supreme council meeting at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju, Min said enshrining the spirit of the May 18 pro-democracy uprising in the constitutional preamble and laying a constitutional foundation for civic sovereignty and decentralization were tasks that could no longer be deferred. "We will rebuild the momentum for constitutional reform discussions with the launch of the South Jeolla-Gwangju Integrated Special City," he said.

Min also called on party leader Jung Chung-rae to help ensure that large conglomerates' semiconductor investment — a subject of much recent debate — proceeds smoothly. "The path toward the South Jeolla-Gwangju Integrated Special City absolutely requires the support of the Democratic Party, Lee Jae Myung's people's sovereignty government, and the National Assembly," he said. "I respectfully ask for the party's full and unconditional support."

He described the city's launch as a historic turning point, saying it marked the beginning of the end of 80 years of discrimination, marginalization and exploitation the region had endured since liberation. "This is the work of dismantling and rebuilding, through the power of integration, the boundary that Chun Doo-hwan's new military junta drew between South Jeolla Province and Gwangju," he said.

Min said integration was ultimately the path to fulfilling the spirit of May Gwangju. "We will open an integrated special city where citizens are the masters, carrying forward the vision of a just and equal world that the Donghak Peasant Army longed for and May Gwangju dreamed of," he said.

Party leader Jung Chung-rae, also speaking at the meeting, stressed the need to enshrine the spirit of the May 18 uprising in the constitutional preamble. He pledged to channel the party's full energy into identifying special administrative provisions, securing 20 trillion won (about $13.1 billion) in support over four years, and obtaining additional fiscal incentives to make the South Jeolla-Gwangju Integrated Special City a successful model for balanced national development.