Gangwon Province Governor Kim Jin-tae and North Chungcheong Province Governor Kim Young-hwan have come under growing criticism, following revelations that the former played golf and the latter attended a drinking party while their respective regions were suffering wildfires.
Competition is heating up among municipalities to attract a Tesla Gigafactory to their regions, after the U.S. carmaker s CEO, Elon Musk, responded positively last month to President Yoon Suk-yeol s request to build an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant in Korea. Automobile industry experts, however, have remained skeptical about the feasibility of constructing the factory here, regarding the Tesla CEO s remarks as mere “lip service.”
Gangwon Province Governor Kim Jin-tae has been facing criticism from both the ruling and opposition parties for his “hasty” decision not to fulfill a payment guarantee for the developer of Legoland Korea, creating a liquidity crunch in the nation s corporate bond and commercial paper markets. During the ruling People Power Party s (PPP) emergency committee meeting, floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young blamed the Gangwon governor and warned of a butterfly effect.