President Lee Jae Myung on Monday ordered the government to accelerate the redistribution of Gwangju Air Base’s military functions so the site can be converted into the Honam semiconductor cluster, while the Blue House later said late 2028 represents the fastest feasible timetable after repeated interagency reviews. Lee had called for the functions to be moved by mid-2028 during a public-private review of the government’s Three Mega Projects, but Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik subsequently said the relocation and temporary redistribution would be completed in the second half of that year.

The government has designated the 3.2-square-mile (8.3-square-kilometer) military