Honam semiconductor cluster plan sparks political firestorm

Political tensions over the planned semiconductor cluster in the Honam region are intensifying as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix move closer to announcing investments in the project.

Opposition figures have attacked the government and ruling party, calling the initiative political interference in corporate decision-making, while the Democratic Party of Korea has fired back, urging critics to stop stoking regional divisions.

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo sharpened his criticism Friday in a Facebook post, questioning whether a president has the authority to order a private company — not a state-owned enterprise — to invest hundreds of trillions of won in a specific region.

"Directing investment of an astronomical sum exceeding half of South Korea's annual budget to a designated region, with no legal basis whatsoever and driven by Cheong Wa Dae, is a clear abuse of authority," Ahn said.

PPP lawmakers from the Daegu-North Gyeongsang region held a press conference Thursday, arguing that industrial policy must not be dictated by political logic under the banner of balanced national development. They then marched to Cheong Wa Dae to deliver a petition stating that "the nation's semiconductor industry must be decided by the market and competitiveness, not politics."

Senior party figures and prominent opposition lawmakers also escalated their attacks. Rep. Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook that Japan's semiconductor industry fragmented its ecosystem and lost competitiveness by scattering factories across the country. Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun said semiconductors "are not an industry that moves on the Democratic Party's convention schedule," adding that national strategic industries must follow industrial logic, not a political timetable.

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok also weighed in on Facebook, saying companies — not politicians — should decide where and when to build semiconductor factories based on where they can win against global competition. Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said balanced development is an important policy goal, but "the moment politics designates the location of a strategic industry first, we risk losing both balance and competitiveness."

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, mounted a vigorous defense of the investment plan. Rep. Ahn Do-geol, the party's deputy floor leader whose constituency covers Dong-gu and Nam-gu in Gwangju, told a policy coordination meeting June 25 that the PPP was "turning even a voluntary and preemptive investment decision made for the company's own future into fodder for political squabbling, fixating on baseless criticism and fanning regional conflict."

Chief spokesperson Kang Jun-hyeon said in a briefing that the Honam-Chungcheong cluster plan was "a comprehensive blueprint that fully pursues the cause of balanced national development while carefully weighing specific factors such as power supply, water and land." He added that a semiconductor cluster outside the greater Seoul area represented "a bold vision to break free from the capital-region monopoly."

Lawmakers from South and North Jeolla Province also jockeyed to attract the investment to their own districts. Rep. Park Ji-won, who represents Haenam, Wando and Jindo in South Jeolla Province, declared on Facebook that "the optimal choice for becoming an AI and semiconductor powerhouse is Haenam in South Jeolla Province." Rep. Kim Eui-gyeom, whose constituency spans Gunsan, Gimje and Buan in North Jeolla Province, said he "warmly applauds the Honam semiconductor investment" but argued that the cluster should be distributed across multiple sites to prevent the pitfalls of concentrating everything in one place — as happened with Yongin — from repeating themselves in Gwangju.