Free Articles: City of Sejong

Sejong City

Sejong-si 세종시
— Special Autonomous City —
Sejong Special Autonomous City
transcription(s)
- Hangul	세종특별자치시
- Hanja	世宗特別自治市
- Revised Romanization	Sejong Teukbyeol-jachisi
- McCune-Reischauer	Sechong Tŭkpyŏl-chach’isi
Construction site of first apartment in Sejong, November 2009
Map of South Korea with Sejong highlighted
Country	South Korea
Region	Hoseo
Districts	TBD
Government
- Mayor	TBD
Population (TBD)
- Total	TBD
- Dialect
Flower	TBD
Tree	TBD
Bird	TBD
Website	happycity.go.kr (English)

In early 2007, the Government of Republic of Korea decided to create a special administrative district housing nine ministries and four national agencies currently located in Seoul out of part of the present Chungcheongnam-do province, near Daejeon. The new district will be named Sejong Special Autonomous City (세종특별자치시, 世宗特別自治市). The plan for creation of the city arose after the failure of former President Roh Moo-hyun to relocate the national capital from Seoul to the region. The prospective city was named in honor of the Joseon Dynasty King Sejong the Great, the father of Korea's national alphabet. The plan envisages a city with a population of around 500,000

Plans for the city have resulted in numerous disputes in the National Assembly. In September 2009 Prime Minister Chung Un-chan opined that the plan to build Sejong as a national administrative center was "not an efficient policy when viewed from the eyes of an economist." (Chung would later further criticize Sejong City as pork barrel politics, proposed "only in consideration of garnering more votes.") This led to more than a thousand senior scholars and politicians including three former prime ministers to call for a revision of the plan. Geum Chang-ho, a senior research fellow of the , noted that the original plan had drawn criticism that the city would have many of the ten thousand government employees separated from their families, which would remain in the Seoul area to take advantage of such amenities as perceived superior educational opportunities. As a result of the separations, Sejong would experience a toadstool effect, with bars, nightclubs etc. springing up virtually overnight. Therefore, the government has "been studying ways to make Sejong self-sufficient..." . The GNP plans to alleviate internal conflict and seek support from the Chungcheong region for the government's new plan to develop Sejong into a hub of education, science and business. A faction led by President Lee Myung-bak's political rival Rep. Park Geun-hye within the GNP, all opposition parties and a majority of people in the Chungcheong region are against scrapping the original plan to relocate government ministries to Sejong in South Chungcheong Province.