Decision This Week on Agencies to Be Relocated to New Capital

The government will outline a general plan of construction and decide which government agencies will be moved to the new administrative capital this week.

Meanwhile, criticism has continued that the government is pushing forward with capital relocation in defiance of public opinion, which leans toward opposing or reconsidering the relocation project.

The Presidential Committee on Administrative Capital Relocation announced yesterday that it will hold the fifth committee meeting on this Wednesday at the Central Government Complex in Sejongno, Seoul, and have discussions on the relocation of 85 state bodies and a basic plan of construction.

When the committee announced a “tentative final draft” regarding the relocation of the 85 government agencies on June 9, it said it would confirm the relocation of eleven constitutional agencies, including the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and the National Election Commission, with the president’s approval after submitting a bill for agreement on their relocation to the National Assembly sometime in July.

The possibility remains that those constitutional agencies will be excluded from the relocation, because there is a sharp conflict between the ruling party and the opposition party on the capital relocation itself, and the Supreme Court has not defined its position on the issue.

Lee Chun-hee, deputy head of the Commission for New Administrative Capital Construction, said, “The state agencies that will be moved to the new administrative capital may not be confirmed at the fifth meeting, due to numerous variables such as the constitutional petition. However, relocation of the Administration alone is possible even though the National Assembly or the Supreme Court might oppose relocation.”

Meanwhile, many people are voicing their opinions that a brake should be put on the progress of what they regard as the government’s ill-prepared project. Among them are 133 seniors from every sector of society who recently issued a statement pointing out problems in government’s way of pushing forward the capital relocation.

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com