Self-sufficient City of 500,000 in the Yongi-Gongju Area

On January 7, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Alternatives to a New Administrative Capital Kim Han-gil (Uri Party) said, “The ruling and the opposition party roughly agreed that the alternative plan for the new administrative capital will stick to the Yon-gi and Gongju area in the South Chungchong Province as the site, and will construct a self-sufficient city for a population of 400,000 to 500,000.”

Chairman Kim participated in the leaders’ meeting of the ruling Uri Party at the headquarters in Yongdungpo-gu, Seoul, and said, “At the temporary session in February, the National Assembly should enact the special bill for the plan.” He added, “The government suggested three alternatives —a special administrative city plan, an administrative town plan, and an education and science administration city plan, but after discussion, the committee concluded that they were all actually similar except for their titles. We requested that the government merge the three plans into one proposal.”

Choi Kyung-hwan, a representative of the Grand National Party and member of the committee, said, “We agreed on the location, but the size of the new city can be modified according to capital functions that will be moved. We need to reach an agreement on that point before the enactment of the related law in February.”

Representative Choi opposed to two out of the three alternatives, saying, “The ruling party supports either the special administrative city plan or the administrative town plan. However, as they are to move too many government agencies and ministries, they might violate the ruling of the constitutional court last year, and may cause controversy over their unconstitutionality as the Ministry of Justice recently interpreted.”

Meanwhile, the committee organized a sub-committee to discuss detailed plans on January 6. Park Byung-seok, chairman of the subcommittee and representative of the Uri Party, argued, “We do not mean to build just another city in the Chungcheong area; rather, we mean to disperse the overpopulation of the metropolitan Seoul area, and activate local areas. To this end, we need a special administrative city to decentralize the political and economic power of the capital region.”

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com