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I served as CEO of Daehan Sugar and on the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s committee to strengthen private investment projects. I helped bring Incheon International Airport to Yeongjong Island and participated in building the new Incheon port at Songdo. Over the years, I have been one of those advocating for Incheon’s port development. At the time, we expanded coastal ports to handle rapidly rising cargo volumes, but we also recognized a clear long-term limit: Incheon’s port infrastructure would struggle to adapt to changes in global shipping.
Historically, our port evolved to fit a canal-centered shipping order. In 1971 we opened a lock-based port designed for 50,000-ton vessels to meet Panama and Suez Canal standards. As ships grew—eventually exceeding the Panamax class of roughly 150,000 tons—we remained focused on building and maintaining an 80,000-ton-class port system centered on Songdo’s new Incheon port. That approach no longer fits. Today’s container ships calling through Panama and Suez already surpass 150,000 tons, and the shipping paradigm has shifted from canal-dependent routing to direct deep-sea voyages. Experiments using the Arctic route have succeeded and are moving toward practical use. Greenland’s strategic importance is rising, and some shippers are even eyeing East Coast port projects.
Japan and China have moved proactively to capture this shift. Major Chinese east-coast ports—Qingdao, Tianjin and Dalian—have already built deepwater outer-port systems that directly accommodate ultra-large vessels. Shanghai’s development of the Yangshan outer port, linked by an oversea connection roughly 30 km to the east, began more than 20 years ago to compete with Singapore, Busan, Hong Kong and Yokohama. Those facilities have become both logistics hubs and transshipment centers, quickly growing into ports comparable to Busan, the world’s fifth-largest.
By contrast, Incheon remains constrained by tidal differences and shallow depths. Repeated dredging to maintain a coastal port cannot keep us competitive. Frankly, we cannot win this game by sticking to the same methods. Incheon now faces a decisive choice: remain a coastal port or move offshore and establish a new competitive order. The answer is clear.
We must build an outer port centered on Deokjeok Island in the heart of the West Sea and Gyeonggi Bay. In short, we need to usher in the Deokjeok outer-port era. This is not merely another expansion project. It is a program to fundamentally transform Incheon’s port structure and a national strategic initiative to reorganize Korea’s logistics system. A deepwater ocean port would allow ultra-large vessels to call directly and would position us as a transshipment hub between China and Japan.
Linking that port to Incheon International Airport in an integrated sea–air logistics network would place Incheon at the center of roughly 40% of the nation’s manufacturing activity and handle about 30% of import–export cargo in the West Sea region. That would give us a distinct competitive advantage.
This is not only a port-development issue. Internationally, it’s about reducing dependence on Japanese and Chinese ports and securing leadership of Northeast Asian logistics. Domestically, it’s about protecting Korea’s manufacturing competitiveness—from Gyeonggi Bay through the Chungcheong region to Gunsan—and ultimately national resilience.
Moreover, constructing a West Sea bridge (Yeongjongdo–Jawoldo–Deokjeokdo) and developing the Deokjeok archipelago and Yeongheung islets as a national marine park would revitalize neglected islands and make the sea accessible to all citizens. Combined with the West Sea corridor linking Songdo–Yeongjong–Ganghwa, this would create core infrastructure to propel Incheon into a genuine Northeast Asian logistics and international city.
If building the Songdo new Incheon port was the right choice for its time, the Deokjeok outer port is now indispensable for the future. We can no longer delay. If we remain coastal, the competition is already over. Only by going offshore will new opportunities open.
/Sang-eun Park, chairman of the Korea Institute for Academic Research and former member of the National Assembly
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