Sri Lanka, Feb. 5 -- South Korea's Jindo County Governor Kim Hee-soo came under fire after saying that "foreign young women from Sri Lanka or Vietnam should be imported" as a response to the issue of population decline.

The remarks were made Wednesday afternoon at the Haenam Culture and Arts Center in South Jeolla during a town hall meeting on the proposed administrative integration of Gwangju and South Jeolla, which targeted nine local governments in the western part of the province.

The event featured South Jeolla Governor Kim Yung-rok, Gwangju Mayor Kang Gi-jung, Mokpo National University Vice President Park Si-hyung and Oh Sang-jin, head of the AI Industry Cluster Agency, as panelists.

Jindo County Gov. Kim Hee-soo, who attended th...