Han Dong-hoon rebuffs Lee's claim that Honam has enough water and power for semiconductor relocation

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon has pushed back point by point against the Lee Jae Myung administration's plan to build a semiconductor cluster in the Honam region, citing concerns over power supply and water availability.

On Saturday, Han posted on Facebook disputing President Lee's assertion that the Gwangju and South Jeolla Province area has sufficient electricity and water to support a semiconductor relocation. "That is not the case," he wrote.

On the power issue, Han said the Honam region frequently experiences output curtailment — where electricity generated by solar panels is blocked from entering the grid — due to excessive solar installations.

He added that modern semiconductor fabrication plants cannot tolerate even a one-hundredth-of-a-second power outage or frequency fluctuation. "If a solar overvoltage problem occurs, all the wafers have to be scrapped, and losses could run into the trillions of won," he said.

Han said the water situation was even more serious, noting that operating a semiconductor cluster in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province would require an average of about 430,000 tons of industrial water per day. He said the Yeongsan River basin already lacks sufficient water for residential and industrial use and depends on water resources from other basins.

Citing data from a state-run research institute, Han said the projected water shortage in the Yeongsan River basin, accounting for climate change, reaches 2.19 million tons per year. "Whose idea is it to build a semiconductor factory in a region where chronic water shortages are anticipated?" he said.

Han urged that the Lee administration be stopped from "slitting open the goose that lays the golden eggs," and called on lawmakers to leave semiconductors untouched "for the sake of future generations."

Earlier that day, President Lee had posted on X, formerly Twitter, citing a news article that raised the possibility of water shortages, and said water in the Honam region is as plentiful as in the Yeongnam region or the Greater Seoul area. "Setting aside political positions, I ask for your understanding and cooperation on balanced regional development and a policy of nationwide coexistence and mutual prosperity — issues on which the fate of the Republic of Korea depends," he wrote.