Jeju Governor Oh Young-hun held a press conference at the Jeju Provincial Office, Monday, and expressed his deep regret to the Ministry of Environment, saying, "The important decision was made unilaterally without any information or consultation." (Yonhap)

The Ministry of Environment said Monday that it has "conditionally agreed" to a strategic environmental impact assessment submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for the construction of a second airport in Jeju, bringing a decade-old project back on track.

The project, first proposed in 2005, centers on building a new airport with a 3,200-meter-long airstrip in Seogwipo, southeast of Jeju. Previously, the Environment Ministry has repeatedly opposed the Transport Ministry-backed plan, citing preservation of bird habitats.

Agreeing to the plan this time, the Environment Ministry offered three conditions for consent. It requested that sufficient information be provided to local residents and Jeju Island, and to include various issues being raised through discussions. It also asked the Transport Ministry to come up with measures to prevent bird collisions and to protect bird habitats. In addition, it asked for the protection of species under legal protection and the geological environment.

The "conditional" agreement by the Environment Ministry does not lift all hurdles for the project, as the final assessment will be conducted by the Jeju Island Office.

The Environment Ministry had rejected the same plan back in July 2021, citing insufficient supplementary content. The Transport Ministry supplemented the data through a year of additional research and sought consent from the Environment Ministry again in January. The Transport Ministry stated that it had sufficiently met the requirements for the project to be deemed feasible, as it submitted the necessary environmental conservation measures and various studies that support location selection.

The 4.87 trillion won ($3.7 billion) plan was one of the campaign pledges by President Yoon Suk Yeol. Yoon named Won Hee-ryong, a former Jeju governor, as his first transport minister.