President Yoon Seok Yeol announced a policy to free up over 340 million square meters of land from military facility protection zones across the country.

During the 15th presidential public forum on people's livelihoods at the Seosan Air Base in South Chungcheong Province on Monday, the president made the announcement to remove the protection zone designation from the military facility areas.

The military facility protection zone is an area designated by the Minister of National Defense to protect military bases and military facilities to allow them to smoothly carry out military operations.

With the lifting of such protections for military facilities which include the 287 square kilometers of land around the military airfields in Seosan, President Yoon vowed the government will provide solid support to ensure that South Chungcheong Province becomes a high-tech industrial base comparable to Silicon Valley.

The latest pledge by Yoon would mark the largest combined area the country has lifted restrictions on since a relevant law was enacted in 2007.