Osong Station in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province / Korea Times file

By Lee Kyung-min

Should the KTX bullet train have a stop in Sejong, an administrative city south of Seoul?

The long debate resurfaced again recently, sparked by a heated social media spat between Sejong Mayor Choi Min-ho and North Chungcheong Province Governor Kim Young-hwan.

The governor says the issue is a closed matter, after a government-commissioned feasibility study concluded in 2017 that the cost-benefit analysis had a figure of 0.58, far below 1.0 ― the minimum level considered economically and financially viable. He maintains that Osong Station in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, is sufficient to accommodate commuters that ride the high-speed rail service to the administrative city from Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. He has also aired grievances that a better transport link would trigger a population exodus from the province to the administrative city.

However, the mayor of the city says the matter should be revisited, in line with the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's new policy which calls for establishing a second presidential office as well as a second National Assembly in the city. Another reason is that Sejong is the only special self-governing city without a KTX station, a result of discriminatory neglect in the government initiative to foster balanced growth. The feasibility, the mayor, says is not at all a foregone conclusion and is debatable, a new point of contention to follow depending on the results of a new ongoing study to be concluded in October.

The two contrasting views aside, government officials and reporters and other new media organization employees say a KTX station closer to the government complex in Sejong will reduce the commute time. The rail trip from Seoul Station to Osong Station takes about 50 minutes, but it takes at least 40 minutes from there to the complex. Depending on the location of government ministries, it sometimes takes the best part of an hour.

It's not an entirely bad idea to have a KTX station near the government complex, according to some government officials.

"The commute time will certainly be reduced," a high-level official of a Sejong-based ministry said on condition of anonymity. "High-level ministry officials have to go to Seoul at least once or twice a week, and a faster commute can help us better manage our time."

Another government official said the claimed benefit of having a KTX station in Sejong to integrate the administrative functions of the city is not all that far-fetched.

"If a second presidential office is built, then more events can be organized in the city, and having a public transport system that makes travel to the city more effective is not a bad thing," he said.

Social media war

The social media spat was sparked last week when the Chungcheong governor was highly critical of Sejong City.

"Sejong is hated by everybody, mostly due to overstepping its bounds beyond a reasonable, acceptable degree," Kim said on social media, Jan. 6.

"The population of North Chungcheong Province is declining rapidly because of Sejong's expansion."

The comment was refuted by Choi, Monday, when he had a press conference to announce the city's growth plan for this year.

"Construction of a KTX station in Sejong should be viewed from the perspective of promoting mutual growth for both North Chungcheong Province and Sejong," Choi said during a briefing at Sejong City Hall.

Opening a Sejong KTX station would, in his view, facilitate the Yoon administration's vision to elevate the city to a fully functional second administrative city to complement Seoul.

"I think Kim was not right to have made the comment. Public figures including civil servants and politicians should watch their words, a lesson that I have learned," he said.