National Assembly and Supreme Court Picked To Move To New Administrative Capital

Eighty-five national organizations, including Cheong Wa Dae, the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the administrative ministries, will move to the newly built administrative capital starting in 2012.

On June 8, the Committee for Construction of the New Administrative Capital (CCNAC) announced that they had examined 143 organizations located in Seoul and its satellite cities, and have provisionally decided which to move, which will stay, and when and how the relocation will take place.

This tentative plan will be fixed after acquiring approval from the President this July.

Looking separately at the organizations to be moved, 74 organizations are administrative, including △11 organizations directly responsible to the President such as presidential secretaries △13 are directly responsible to the prime minister such as the Office for Government Coordination △48 are central ministries and their branches such as the Ministry of Finance and Economy △two are individual organizations such as the Broadcasting Commission.

In addition, 11 organizations related to the Constitution and its branches, such as the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Court, will be moved as well. However, moving the constitutional organizations will be decided according to the approval of the National Assembly. For now, 23,614 personnel working in 85 organizations are scheduled to move.

On the other hand, 55 organizations, including the National Intelligence Service, the Financial Supervisory Committee, and the Met Office, were excluded from the move because it was determined that it was not necessary for them to be closer to the central administrative organizations or because they have special facilities that are hard to move.

CCNAC estimates that the cost for constructing new buildings for the organizations and moving them could reach as high as 3.4 trillion won.

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com