Yeongju Repeats as Korea's Drone Demonstration City for 2026
Yeongju City in North Gyeongsang Province has been selected for the 2026 Drone Demonstration City Construction Project for the second consecutive year, a program run by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Aviation Safety Technology Institute. The initiative aims to develop and validate urban drone services tailored to local conditions.
Yeongju plans to pursue the K-Drone Delivery Commercialization track, focusing on logistics and public-safety drone applications. The city will receive government funding of 110 million won and will implement a Yeongju-specific drone demonstration project through November, targeting real-world city conditions.
Eom Tae-hyun, the city’s acting mayor and deputy mayor, said the program will be aligned with Yeongju’s Drone Special Free Zone to advance delivery services and establish a sustainable commercialization model, while leveraging artificial intelligence to address local problems and improve residents’ daily lives.
Last year, Yeongju piloted drone food deliveries at eight points along the Seocheon embankment and around Yeongju Lake using the public delivery app Meokkkaebi, a test that yielded positive reception from residents and demonstrated the feasibility of drone-enabled logistics.
This year’s plan aims to deepen the drone delivery program by integrating with the Drone Special Free Zone and expanding into public services. A key test route includes a 7-kilogram payload and a round-trip distance of up to 20 kilometers between an urban delivery hub at Kyungbuk Technical College and the Yeongju Lake delivery hub.
The city also intends to broaden delivery items beyond meals by partnering with local distributors and logistics firms to include agricultural products and other regional goods, with the goal of a sustainable, scalable drone delivery model.
In addition, Yeongju plans to introduce AI-powered drone patrols and upgrade a drone monitoring system to extend public-safety use. Drones would monitor water safety along the Seocheon embankment, potential flood risks, crowd protection at events, and activities around Yeongju Lake, with rapid-response cooperation with the Yeongju Police Station and Fire Department.
For U.S. audiences, the project highlights how Korea is integrating drones into both commercial logistics and municipal safety. If successful, the model could inform cross-border collaboration on supply-chain resilience, urban infrastructure, and autonomous delivery systems, relevant to American logistics firms, technology developers, and policymakers considering drone-enabled public services.
Background context: Yeongju is a mid-sized city in the northeastern part of Korea, and the program sits within Korea’s broader push to expand drone use from private delivery into public-service applications. The Drone Special Free Zone referenced in the project denotes a framework intended to support pilot programs and regulatory experimentation in drone operations.