Korea to Move Capital

    In early July, the Korean government announced that they have picked a site in Yeongi-Gongju in Chung-cheong province for the future capital.

    Chosen from a list of four potential sites, Yeongi-Gongju lies 160km south of Seoul and is easily accessible from the capital and other major cities. The new capital is expected to host 85 key administrative, legislative and judiciary bodies. It will have about 500,000 residents initially, although experts believe the number will eventually grow to two or three million.

    In contrast, nearly 48 percent of the nation's population, or 23 million people, live in the Seoul Metropolitan area, ①accounting for 11.8 percent of the country's total land area. A presidential panel found that the excessive concentration of development in the Seoul metropolitan area, which includes Gyeonggi province, undermined its contribution to national growth. ......