Suncheon mayor touts taekwondo event, medical school wins at 100-day mark

Press conference held Thursday at Suncheon Cultural Foundation to mark 100 days in office

Suncheon Mayor Son Hun-mo said Thursday that the city had secured a string of major achievements in its first 100 days, including winning the right to host the 2027 World Taekwondo Hanmadang, being named a candidate institution for a new medical school at Sunchon National University, and receiving designation as a national advanced strategic industry cluster in the secondary battery sector.

Speaking at a 100-day press conference at the Suncheon Cultural Foundation, Son said the city had spent the past 100 days laying new foundations for growth across future industries, essential healthcare, civic empowerment and regional cooperation. "Using the groundwork built over these 100 days as a stepping stone, Suncheon will pursue a full-scale leap forward centered on three growth strategies — economic, urban and ecological — under our slogan 'A Greater Suncheon, Opened Together,'" he said.

Son also outlined blueprints for each of those areas.

He said the city would pursue a "future economic city" built around five growth pillars — the defense and space industries, global cultural tourism, a social solidarity economy, integrated eastern-region economic development, and a Suncheon-style smart farm model — with the aim of attracting businesses and people, expanding jobs and incomes, and ensuring those gains translate into tangible improvements in residents' lives.

On the appointment of a deputy mayor, Son said he believed it was more appropriate for the times to select someone from among the city's own bureau directors who knew Suncheon well and had relevant expertise, while acknowledging that an externally transferred deputy mayor could also play a role in managing issues related to the proposed Jeonnam-Gwangju integrated special city.

"The 'Greater Suncheon' envisioned by the ninth elected-term administration is not simply about outward urban growth," Son said. "We will ensure that the fruits of our three growth strategies — economic, urban and ecological — are felt as real, tangible change in the lives of Suncheon's 280,000 citizens." He pledged to transform Suncheon from an ecological city into a future economic hub, and from a standalone city into a mega-city anchoring the eastern South Jeolla Province region of 840,000 people, encompassing Yeosu and Gwangyang.