Speaking in South Gyeongsang, Lee underscores voters ultimately shape how politics allocates resources, as parties gear up for June 3 local elections
President Lee Jae Myung on Friday reiterated that nationwide balanced growth and balanced development are South Korea’s “survival strategy,” speaking at a railway groundbreaking ceremony in South Gyeongsang Province, a traditional conservative stronghold.
“The southern inland railway is not simply a project to lay down a single rail line,” Lee said during the groundbreaking ceremony in Geoje. “It is the beginning of a major transformation of the national territory — one that moves away from a ‘single-pole system’ in which everything is concentrated in the capital region, connects people and regions, links opportunities and creates new engines of regional growth.”
Lee underscored the importance of commencing construction of the railway project linking Gimcheon Station in North Gyeongsang Province with Geoje Station in South Gyeongsang Province.
The capital region and Geoje will be connected within a two-hour travel time, bringing many parts of North and South Gyeongsang provinces into a nationwide half-day living sphere, according to Lee.
In his speech, Lee pointed out that it is time to move away from the previous “go-all-in” approach — which concentrated limited resources and opportunities on the greater Seoul area, major conglomerates and select groups — despite it having once produced tangible gains through “trickle-down” effects.
“But now, this single-pole system and unbalanced growth strategy have reached their limits. As everything concentrates in the capital region, resources and opportunities are being exposed as inefficient,” Lee said.
“We must now make balanced growth and balanced development the survival strategy of the Republic of Korea,” Lee added, referring to South Korea by its official name.
As his flagship initiative, Lee has pursued a balanced regional growth agenda aimed at easing the heavy concentration of population and economic activity in the Seoul metropolitan area and fostering new growth engines nationwide.
“We will provide stronger and more decisive support the farther a region is from the capital area, and we will see through a major transformation toward a ‘five-pole, three-special-zone system’ in which the southern region emerges as a maritime capital,” Lee said.
The Lee administration seeks to establish five regional hubs by grouping the Seoul metropolitan area, the Chungcheong provinces, the Honam region, the Daegu–North Gyeongsang region and the Busan–Ulsan–South Gyeongsang region into ultrawide economic zones.
In parallel, the blueprint seeks to strengthen the three special self-governing authorities of Gangwon Province, North Jeolla Province and Jeju Island, supporting independent development models tailored to each region’s characteristics.
“When everything continues to flow into Seoul as it does now, housing prices there surge to the point where the city becomes unlivable, while local regions face the crisis of depopulation and extinction as people disappear,” Lee said. “Under such conditions, sustained growth and development of this country are impossible.”
During a town hall meeting with residents of South Gyeongsang Province following the groundbreaking ceremony, Lee stressed the importance of exercising voting rights responsibly to ensure politics functions as a mechanism for distributing resources across society.
“In the end, politics plays the role of distributing resources in a society. But the issue is this: Although politics appears to be done by politicians, who actually does it? It is the people,” Lee told participants.
Lee suggested that blind support becomes fertile ground for bad politicians to survive and make people's livelihoods more difficult, notably in the conservative stronghold, as nationwide local elections are set for June 3.
Offering an example of the harms of blind loyalty, Lee said, “I like yellow. Even if it kills my parents, I like yellow. Even if it ruins my life, I like yellow. If you’re like that, then yellow becomes easy to sell, right? You go and buy it. You buy even prettier yellow things and say, ‘I’m definitely yellow!’
“If people can survive like that, then in the end, those who harm the world, harm people’s lives, and ruin my life and the lives of my children end up representing me — using the taxes I pay and the power I entrusted them with to serve their own interests.”
Lee underscored that “This is a fundamentally very important issue.”
“Therefore, we must correct this imbalance — this overconcentration in the greater Seoul area — no matter what it takes.”
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
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