The three cities, with a combined population of 700,000, submitted a joint petition to the government, the National Assembly and the proposed Gwangju-South Jeolla integrated special city.
Amid objections from Mokpo National University over the selection of Sunchon National University as the site for a new national medical school in South Jeolla Province, the cities of Suncheon, Yeosu and Gwangyang on Thursday urged the government to press ahead without delay with follow-up procedures for establishing the medical school.
The three adjacent cities have a combined population of about 700,000, and the broader eastern South Jeolla region — which also includes Boseong, Goheung, Gurye and Gokseong-gun — has a population of 840,000.
At the first extraordinary session of the 2026 Yeosu-Suncheon-Gwangyang Administrative Council, held Thursday, the three cities adopted a joint petition calling for the swift establishment of a medical school and university hospital at Sunchon National University and urged that follow-up procedures move forward without disruption.
In the joint petition, the three mayors said the project was "not an undertaking for any particular university or region, but a shared task to guarantee the right to life and medical sovereignty of residents in eastern South Jeolla Province and to close the gap in healthcare access between regions."
The petition came as the selection process has stalled following challenges from Mokpo National University and other institutions in western South Jeolla Province, which have raised objections over the selection procedures and land acquisition for the medical school site and filed lawsuits.
The three mayors said in the joint petition that the same evaluation criteria and procedures had been applied to both universities — Sunchon National University and Mokpo National University — and that the assessment had comprehensively weighed the specificity and feasibility of each institution's plans, including the location and scale of educational facilities and a university hospital, as well as site acquisition strategies and projected timelines.
Suncheon Mayor Son Hun-mo said the three cities would "speak with one voice to convey our position to the government and relevant agencies, and cooperate to the end to ensure that the opening of the medical school and the establishment of the university hospital at Sunchon National University — announced as the candidate site for the South Jeolla medical school — proceed without a hitch."
The three cities plan to submit the joint petition to relevant government ministries, the National Assembly and the proposed Gwangju-South Jeolla integrated special city.
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