In My Opinion… Out with Regionalism in Korea

By Park Nahm-Sheik ||

“United we stand; divided we fall” is a foundational credo taught to Korean elementary school students.

Division, territorial or otherwise, is undesirable. This national overarching mission statement is perceived as being a near genetic legacy with the deepest of roots. Some struggle as they stand by while regionalism continues. Some articulate that the continuing regionalism in Korea is an ill omen for future generations and ultimately should be avoided. Regionalism has been perceived as a mortal peril.

Nonetheless, regional friction oftentimes surfaces during day-to-day discussions of national politics and/or governance. Recently, for instance, whether to locate Korea’s newest semiconductor manufacturing cluster in the Jeonnam-Gwangju region was noted as a contentious issue among the politically sensitive elite of Korean society. With this as a backdrop, President Lee Jae Myung recently made it public that the Jeonnam-Gwangju region has too long been slighted and exploited unfairly and unjustly, while the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area has benefited at the expense of Jeonnam-Gwangju. Lee proposed that appropriate amends would be made for the historic wrongs endured by Gwangju and Jeollanam-do for decades and even centuries (for example, disfavoring Jeolla-do during the Joseon Period and bias in the funding of projects during the ROK period).

President Lee was hoping to substantively correct this wrongful situation. Evidently, he has attempted to prevent any further tilt in governmental policies that favor the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area, proposing a few tangible remedial measures in the process. This move has understandably pleased some Gwangju leaders but also has drawn the ire of others.

Subsequently, in a related policy statement recently issued, President Lee proposed to allot the long-contemplated new semiconductor manufacturing cluster to Gwangju. He immediately ran into opposition of explosive proportions from the pro-Daegu-Gyeongbuk crowd. In truth, the package of measures referenced is much overdue – decades, and even centuries, overdue. Throughout Korean history, southeastern Korea has been commonly recognized as the “favorite son” of the land while Gwangju and Jeollanam-do have persistently been given the “cold shoulder,” as it were.

Regionalism between southeastern and southwestern Korea has long endured. One example of this is that there was no thoroughfare connecting the two areas until the late 1980s, when the two-lane 88 Expressway connected Gwangju to Daegu. This highway, however, may have been instrumental in creating closer ties between the two cities in more recent years, with the formation of the Dalbit Alliance in 2009.

For an update on the semiconductor facility, the Gwangju International Airport site has been confirmed as the location of the nation’s state-of-the-art semiconductor hub. Hopefully, this will be viewed as a measure in the direction of correcting the wrongs of the past and, again hopefully, alleviating the regionalism of the present.