Construction Begins on Airport that Will Link Ulleung Island to Seoul
For anyone that has been to Ulleung-do, they will know this will be a difficult construction project considering the topography and sea states that surround the island:
Construction has begun on an airport in Ulleung Island in North Gyeongsang Province, which will cut down travel time from Seoul from the current seven hours to just one.
A ground-breaking ceremony took place Friday attended by Ulleung Governor Kim Byeong-su and a hundred other local and central government officials.
Ulleong Island is located in the East Sea, some 120 kilometers from mainland South Korea. The Ulleong Country administrative area includes the Dokdo Islets.
Once finished, Ulleung Airport will mainly service small aircraft with fewer than 50 seats. Local authorities expect it will increase annual tourist numbers to the remote island to one million, likely boosting the number of people taking sightseeing tours to the Dokdo Islets as well.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link, but I am not a big fan of the airstrip because Ulleung-do is one of the few areas in Korea that is not over run with tourists due to the boat trip currently required to get there. It just seems the small coastal road that goes around the island is going to have a hard time supporting all the tourists coming in.
That’s bound to put the boat drivers out of business. And then, after the island is trashed, the airlines will have only one or two flights a month.
Just because one can do something is not a valid reason that it is an ethical or wise thing to do.
Should they all be taking sail boats out to the island…those airplanes have a real big carbon footprint. Are they trying to go green or just about suppress and controll the population under the excuse of ‘global warming’…..