Cleared for Takeoff: The Economic and Environmental History of Incheon International Airport in 1990s South Korea

Abstract In 1990, the South Korean government announced the construction of a new international airport on reclaimed land to the west of Seoul. This proposal drew the ire of environmental groups and major newspapers as an environmental and economic disaster. The international airport construction proposal arrived at an inflection point of post-1987 democratization, government liberalization of travel restrictions, the growth of the aviation industry, rising environmentalism, and the beginning of a global recession. While large-scale infrastructure projects had enabled South Korea’s rapid economic rise, the high environmental costs sparked intense public interest among South Koreans. However, the openness of the post-1987 period was a double-edged sword for environmental groups. While they found greater freedom to organize and high public interest in environmental issues, the public also had the freedom to decide the type of environmentalism and lifestyle they wanted to pursue. This article examines the Incheon International Airport construction proposal as a case study of the intersection between economic history and environmental history, with popular sentiment as a key swing variable. This study argues that the Incheon airport proposal illustrates the contemporary nature of South Korean environmentalism, lifestyle objectives, and economic consciousness