At a plenary session of the National Assembly on the 26th, lawmakers are voting electronically on the’Special Bill for the Construction of Gadeokdo New Airport’. Reporter Oh Dae-geun
The special law for the construction of new airports on Gadeokdo Island eventually passed the National Assembly. The question of the economy and stability of the new airport on Gadeok Island was not resolved, and the law was created to build a new airport on Gadeok Island without proper research and investigation. After the verification committee under the Prime Minister’s office announced in November last year that the Gimhae new airport needs to be fundamentally reviewed, it nailed the new airport to Gadeokdo Island in Ilsacheon-ri in three months.
The National Assembly held a plenary meeting on the 26th and passed the Gadeokdo Special Law with 181 in favor of 229 members, 33 opposition and 15 abstentions. This is the result of the opposition party clapping hands on the Gadeokdo new airport card pushed by the ruling party ahead of the Busan mayor’s by-election in April. In the process of deliberating on the bill, the law was pushed to the point that both the opposition lawmakers expressed their feelings of self-disruption, but there was no brake in front of the election competition.
Busan citizens may say their wish has been resolved, but it is not yet known what the new airport of Gadeokdo will look like. Busan City plans to maintain Gimhae Airport’s domestic flight while Gadeokdo New Airport operates as an international flight with one runway. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport warned that in this case, there is a high risk of accidents due to congestion in the airspace and complexity of control tasks due to the operation of multiple airports in close proximity. Instead, it is analyzed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that if Gimhae Airport is integrated and two runways are built on Gadeok Island, the budget will reach 28 trillion won, four times that of Busan City’s 7 trillion won. In addition, unlike overseas airports located in the inland sea, concerns over stability continue to be affected by waves and winds after entering the open sea.
Initially, passports were planned to be pushed back to Busan City by exempting them from the preliminary feasibility study. Through a feasibility study in advance, it is necessary to properly determine whether or not to merge with Gimhae Airport to design Gadeokdo Airport. In this process, if it is judged that the stability concerns cannot be resolved, it is appropriate to review the construction of the new airport in Gaduk Island from the origin.
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