New Administrative Capital Candidate Areas To Be Announced on June 15

The candidate areas for the new administrative capital will be announced on June 15. The actual final decision on the capital area will follow in early July.

The Action Committee for the Establishment of the New Administrative Capital announced on June 10 that they “plan to announce the list of candidate areas of a plural number for the new administrative capital at the 3rd meeting that will be held at the main meeting hall at the Central Governmental Complex on June 15.” The timing of the announcement is five days earlier than the one scheduled previously on June 20.

The committee also plans to announce policies to prevent real estate speculation in the candidate areas and their surrounding areas by designating them as a Special Area of Land Transaction at the time of the announcement.

The committee will also announce the list of 80 candidate area evaluation panel members along with the area announcement. The panel will announce scores for each area in early July after directing a comparison evaluation while staying at a secret residence together until the end of this month. The government will hold a public hearing after this and officially announce the final selection in August. A related official at the committee, who requested anonymity, said, “When we announce the scores of each area, we will announce the comprehensive priority order along with the sectional scores,” and added, “It will be very unlikely that the public hearing composed of ordinary participants will turn around the comprehensive order settled through a thorough analysis by 80 professionals.”

This remark implies that the area with the top score on the list announced in early July will be the actual administrative capital building area.

In regard to the issue, Lee Han-gu, vice chairman of the Grand National Party’s policy committee pointed out, “It is problematic that the government hurries its course of finalizing the area and establishes it as a settled fact in an early stage without gathering people’s opinion about it, and when the complete transfer of the capital in an actual sense is happening with the administration as well as the legislation and the judicial department all moving.”

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com