Yeongcheon mayor strongly opposes plan to establish unified military academy in Daejeon

Yeongcheon Mayor Kim Byeong-sam has come out against the government's plan to establish a unified military academy at Jaundae in Daejeon, saying any decision that "ignores the history of national defense education and balanced regional development cannot be accepted."

In a statement issued Thursday, Kim said he supports the need to reform the future officer training system and strengthen advanced defense education, but opposes concentrating defense education functions in a single region. "This is a national project to restructure South Korea's officer training system, and it requires careful deliberation," he said.

He argued that the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon has spent decades producing elite officers and stands as one of the country's leading defense education institutions. Centralizing a new integrated military academy in a specific region while disregarding existing defense education assets, he said, would run counter to balanced national development and could weaken the academy's role and standing over the long term.

Kim also said that if the government is serious about preparing for future national defense, making full use of already-established education facilities, faculty and accumulated experience would be the rational approach — both in terms of saving the national budget and improving policy efficiency.

The mayor called for the government to halt its unilateral push to establish the Jaundae academy, hold broad public consultations, reconsider policies that would reduce the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon's functions, review the proposed site with balanced national development and existing defense infrastructure in mind, and form an official consultative body involving the government, the National Assembly, the Ministry of National Defense and Yeongcheon City.

"Yeongcheon City will work closely with North Gyeongsang Province, local Assembly members and civil society to actively defend the standing of the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon," Kim said. "We will respond responsibly to the end to uphold the history and tradition of defense education and the principle of balanced national development."