Gangwon Province Governor Woo Sang-ho visited his hometown of Cheorwon on Wednesday.
Despite the personal significance of the homecoming, Woo kept the entire visit focused on official business — listening to local needs and translating them into policy, as befits the early days of the ninth round of directly elected local governance.
Cheorwon County is led by Kim Dong-il, an opposition-party county chief who narrowly defeated the ruling-party candidate. Woo has repeatedly said he wants to set aside partisan lines and work together with all local leaders.
After hearing Kim's briefing and requests, Woo expressed support for Cheorwon's long-sought projects. "Cheorwon is a vital pillar of balanced development in northern Gangwon Province," he said, adding that the province would "actively cooperate to ensure projects — including the Cheorwon–Pocheon expressway and the Cheorwon–Yeoncheon rail electrification — are reflected in national plans and pushed forward with momentum."
Gangwon Province and Cheorwon County agreed to work closely with the central government and relevant agencies to see the county's priority projects incorporated into national plans and advanced as quickly as possible.
The meeting raised public hopes that a rail journey from Jongno through Yeoncheon all the way to Cheorwon could become a reality sooner than expected.
In his first meeting with the governor, Kim urged that the Pocheon–Cheorwon expressway and the Yeoncheon–Cheorwon rail electrification be pursued without delay, calling for an expansion of the regional transportation network.
At the meeting, Cheorwon County asked Gangwon Province to actively support the Pocheon–Cheorwon expressway project in its bid to clear a preliminary feasibility study. The project covers a 24-kilometer first-phase corridor from Sinbuk IC in Pocheon's Sinbuk-myeon to Cheorwon IC in Cheorwon's Galmal-eup, with a total project cost of 1.33 trillion won ($892 million). The county asked the province to help ensure that the Sinbuk IC–Cheorwon IC alignment — the option considered most likely to pass the feasibility review — is reflected in a second Korea Development Institute and Ministry of Planning and Budget meeting scheduled for August and in a subcommittee review set for September. The county also requested that non-Greater Seoul criteria be applied during the comprehensive evaluation, known as the AHP assessment.
The county also flagged the Yeoncheon–Cheorwon rail electrification as a priority. The project would electrify 20.2 kilometers of single-track line from Yeoncheon Station in Gyeonggi Province to Baengmagoji Station in Cheorwon, improving transport access in the border region and promoting balanced development. Cheorwon called for strong provincial support to have the project selected as a new initiative under the fifth National Railway Network Development Plan and to secure an early ground-breaking.
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