South Korea to relocate government ministries and public institutions from Seoul to Sejong and beyond

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The government announced Thursday it will begin to move some government ministries and agencies in the Seoul metropolitan area to the administrative city of Sejong next year, as well as public institutions to outside the capital in a major push to promote balanced regional growth.

The relocation will take place in phases, with the justice and gender ministries to be relocated to Sejong, about 110 kilometers south of Seoul, from the first half of next year, according to an interagency announcement.

Other agencies that require separate offices in Sejong, such as the National Police Agency and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, set to launch next month, will relocate once their offices are newly built.

"Starting in the first half of 2027, we will push for the relocation of central administrative organizations located in the Seoul metropolitan area to the Sejong special self-governing city, beginning with those with large relocation sizes and ripple effects," Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said in a press conference.

"Sejong is the symbol and central axis of balanced national development," she said. "We will build a Sejong office of the president in August 2029 so as to put the administration's center in Sejong while providing support for the planned completion of the National Assembly hall in Sejong in 2030."

The government will confirm the relocating agencies in the final quarter of this year, Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said, noting that the foreign and unification ministries are also under consideration.

"(We) will finalize and announce the relocation plan and agencies subject to relocation during the fourth quarter of this year," Yun said.

The announcement marks the latest in a series of government agency relocations that have been carried out by successive administrations for more than a decade as part of efforts to ease the concentration of national functions in Seoul and promote balanced national development.

Relocations first got under way in 2012 when the prime minister's office became the first central government agency to move to Sejong. According to the National Agency for Administrative City Construction, 44 central government organizations have since completed relocation to the city.

Han said public institutions will also move out of the broader Seoul area.

Based on the principle of minimizing those staying put, the government will announce specific relocation plans in the fourth quarter of this year for 350 institutions located in the Seoul metropolitan area and start moving them next year, Han said.

The number of public institutions will also be reduced by 109, Han said, through structural reforms, the unification of similar and overlapping functions, and the consolidation of small-scale institutions.