With Gangwon Province Governor U Sang-ho and Yanggu-gun County Chief Kim Wang-gyu both treating improvements to soldiers' living conditions as a top priority, the Army's 21st Infantry Division — known as the Baekdusan Division and commanded by Maj. Gen. Yun Ki-seon — has been deepening mutual trust through active resident registration drives and expanded civil-military cooperation.
Yanggu-gun and the 21st Infantry Division held an executive-level meeting Thursday to agree on closer collaboration in areas including security cooperation — among them the Ulchi CPX — joint regional development, and resolving local issues that directly affect residents' daily lives.
Yanggu-gun, with the cooperation of the 21st Infantry Division, ran an on-site mobile resident registration service at non-commissioned officer capability-building workshops held Monday and Wednesday.
County officials visited the workshops to brief NCOs on Yanggu-gun's major tourist sites, the resident registration process, and the various support benefits available to those who settle in the county, and accepted registration applications on the spot.
Officials also outlined a range of settlement support programs, including pre-sale housing in a veterans' settlement village, a 50 percent subsidy on settlement loan interest, full tuition support for university students, the Yangnok scholarship, enrollment congratulatory grants for elementary, middle and high school students, free use of a public postpartum care center, childbirth incentive payments, and a county residents' safety insurance plan.
They also explained in detail a program providing each new resident with 300,000 won ($212) in Yanggu Love gift certificates, an additional 200,000 won for those moving into officer quarters, a 50,000-won voucher for local agricultural and specialty products, and two movie tickets.
Yanggu-gun said it plans to maintain ongoing communication with the 21st Infantry Division to support soldiers settling in the area, while expanding cooperative projects aimed at easing residents' inconveniences and boosting the local economy so that the community and the military base can grow together.
"Through civil-military cooperation, we will give military units the opportunity to operate more stably and improve soldier welfare, while giving the local community the means to resolve everyday inconveniences and drive development," County Chief Kim said. "We will continue building a practical model of cooperation in which the military and the local community grow together."
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