South Korean President Lee Jae-myung travelled to Gwangju, the largest city in the country's southwestern Honam region, on June 30 to personally defend a planned 896-trillion-won (roughly $640 billion) semiconductor and technology investment package against mounting criticism that the project amounts to political favouritism toward his party's traditional stronghold.
At a public briefing held at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju's Seo-gu district — named after the late democracy advocate and former president — Lee said the site selection was driven purely by market logic. 'This follows economic principles,' he said, arguing that constraints on water supply and electrical capacity in the greater Seoul metropolitan area made the southwest 'the only region capable of solving the problem,' given its available land, water, power, and infrastructure.
The investment package, announced the previous day as part of what the government calls three major 'mega-projects,' comprises 425 trillion won from Samsung Electronics, 470 trillion won from SK Hynix, and 1 trillion won from Amkor Technology Korea. The funds are earmarked for memory-chip fabrication plants, semiconductor packaging facilities, AI data centres, and computing centres across the Honam region.
Lee also addressed concerns that the companies had been pressured into the deal. He described his role as 'inducement — or, to put it more strongly, enticement — but not coercion or compulsion,' adding that persuading Samsung and SK Hynix to pursue the Honam cluster simultaneously with their ongoing Yongin semiconductor complex, rather than sequentially, was 'the most rewarding thing' of his presidency. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jeon Yeong-hyeon and SK Hynix CEO Gwak No-jeong, both present at the event, nodded in agreement when Lee asked them to confirm their consent, according to reports.
According to Kookmin Ilbo, Lee told the audience he had secured prior commitments from Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won before the announcement.
At a cabinet meeting earlier the same day, Lee pre-empted critics by acknowledging that the Honam allocation looks large in isolation, but said that when measured against the 'historically accumulated total of investment' the region has received, it amounts to 'a drop in the bucket.' He invoked the classical phrase 'Yangmu Honam simugukga' — roughly, 'without Honam there is no nation' — to frame the investment as long-overdue historical redress for a region he said was systematically excluded from South Korea's postwar industrialisation drive.
Lee pledged to chair personally a semiconductor special committee set up to oversee the project, due to begin work in August, and promised to attend similar regional briefings in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on July 2 and in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, on July 3, where Samsung, SK Hynix, Celltrion, SK Telecom, Hyundai Motor, and Hanwha are expected to feature.
Nocut News separately reported that some analysts view the Gwangju visit as serving a dual political purpose — arresting a slide in approval ratings since local elections and consolidating support within the ruling Democratic Party of Korea ahead of a party leadership convention roughly 50 days away.