UIJEONGBU — Civic groups in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, have launched a citywide campaign demanding that Seoul Subway Line 8 be extended to the city.
The Citywide Committee for the Extension of Subway Line 8 to Uijeongbu held a launch news conference at the Uijeongbu City Hall briefing room on the 2nd, announcing plans for a 100,000-signature petition drive and a rally urging action from the central government.
The committee was formed after an emergency meeting on the 27th of last month that brought together representatives from across the community. Ko Jae-eun, head of the civic group Simin Gonggam, was named chair, and 11 figures from civic groups, professional associations, the business community and the legal profession are serving as co-chairs. Five teams handle operations, covering policy planning, external relations, public relations and media, citizen action, and rally administration.
Behind the campaign is the scheduled November approval of the fifth metropolitan-area wide-area transport implementation plan. The plan is drawn up every five years, and if the extension is not included this time, the committee says the city will have to wait another five years for the next review.
The committee said Uijeongbu, with a population of more than 460,000, depends on what is effectively a single axis in the wide-area rail network connecting it to central Seoul. It noted that travel demand is rising as residents move into newly developed areas such as the Gosan and Millak districts, but that no wide-area transport network has been confirmed to support that demand.
The committee framed the Line 8 extension not as a long-cherished local project but as "the fulfillment of a delayed responsibility." Its argument is that northern Gyeonggi has long borne constraints imposed for national purposes — military installation protection zones, the presence of U.S. Forces Korea and capital-area development restrictions — and that commensurate investment in transport infrastructure is warranted.
"If the state has demanded a special sacrifice, the state also bears the responsibility to deliver commensurate compensation," Ko said. "The Line 8 extension is not a request for a new benefit but a demand that a delayed responsibility be fulfilled."
The committee will collect 100,000 signatures both online and offline and hold a citywide kickoff event on Haengbok Street in Uijeongbu at 7 p.m. on the 8th. On the 15th, it plans to hold a rally of about 300 people in front of the former presidential compound in Seoul and deliver the signatures to the central government.
The group is also seeking alliances with neighboring cities and counties, including Yangju, Dongducheon, Yeoncheon, Pocheon and Namyangju. It intends to mount a joint response with Namyangju, which is seeking an extension of the same line.
The committee said it would operate on principles of nonpartisanship, openness and transparency. It will disclose its membership, schedule and accounts, and will disband automatically once the results of the wide-area transport plan are announced.
"Whether a project is included in the plan depends not only on its economic feasibility but also on how concretely local transport demand can be documented," a committee official said. "The remaining two months are effectively the last chance, so active participation by residents is needed."
