Government Will Stop Legal Action Concerning Capital Relocation

The ruling party adopted the decision of the Constitutional Court exclusively by saying, “We will suspend all measures that are legally affected by a special law for constructing the country’s new administrative capital as a result of the Constitutional Court decision,” after having a party-government meeting on the afternoon of October 21 when the Court decision was made.

However, the government emphasized that “balancing the development of the nation and solving the problems of overcrowded metropolitan city areas are very important tasks that we cannot give up.”

Prior to this, Jung Soon-gyun, director of the Korean Overseas Information Service (KOIS), expressed his position, saying that “we will broadly assess public opinions and respond to this prudently after examining the legal effects and reasonableness of the court’s decision.”

This kind of response implies that the government has not taken proper measures in response to the court’s decision and that the government doesn’t want to acknowledge the legal death of its plan to relocate the capital city.

It seems that the government plans to prepare appropriate measures after examining whether or not the decision is legally binding.

On the other hand, there is another observation that the government will converge opinions of constitutional scholars about the decision and seek a third way to fulfill its commitment of relocating the capital by examining public opinions.

That is, there is a possibility that the government can drive forward its new capital plans by constructing a second special city, avoiding the controversy of violating the court’s decision, through substitute legislation since it is virtually impossible to implement a national vote for a revision of constitutional law.

A high official of the ruling party said that “if a plan to construct the new capital city, which is the current government’s identity, fails, the government cannot do anything in the future. Hence, it has to find another way.”

However, Director Jung did not state his position clearly in response to the question of the possibility of substitute legislation, saying, “I will not answer specific questions. I will answer them on other occasions.”

In any case, the government has acknowledged that it must currently suspend its capital relocation plans. The legal effect on Yeongi and Gongju of South Chungcheong Province, which were selected as the final locations for the capital on August 11, will be ineffective.

Furthermore, it is expected that the Presidential Committee on Administrative Capital Relocation, that has been acting in accordance with the agenda that it will carry out investigations into land taxes, select the location for the new administrative capital, and announce it until at the end of December, will be closed.

The government said that it will hold a conference among party, government, and Cheong Wa Dae, and plan to start an overall re-examination of decentralization policies such as the deregulation of metropolitan areas, innovative city construction, and transfer of public organizations, which were issues addressed in the plans for the construction of the new administrative capital.

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com