Sejong City, Symbol of Balanced National Development, Faces 'Regional Imbalance' and Resident Deprivation

Kim Kwangwoon of Sejong City Council Calls for Establishment of Administrative District in Jochiwon-eup, the Center of the Northern Region

Kim Kwangwoon, a council member of Sejong City, is delivering a 5-minute free speech pointing out the regional imbalance.

While the Administrative City, located in the southern part of Sejong City and funded by the central government, is changing rapidly every day, the northern areas such as Jochiwon-eup must rely on their own budgets for development. This reality has led to slow progress in the north, further exacerbated by worsening fiscal conditions.

Kim Kwangwoon, a member of the Sejong City Council, delivered a five-minute free speech to expose the dire situation in the northern region and called for immediate institutional reforms.

He pointed out that Sejong City, a symbolic city leading balanced national development, continues to experience a sense of relative deprivation among its residents due to regional imbalance within the city itself.

Assemblyman Kim stated, "Sejong City was created under the noble mission of balanced national development and is recognized as a city that will lead the future of South Korea. However, only the southern region continues to flourish, while the northern region is thoroughly neglected and left to suffer."

He also criticized the "Youth Jochiwon Project," which was promoted by the previous mayor. He said, "The most telling evidence of the dire situation in the north is the 'Youth Jochiwon Project.' Former Mayor Lee Chunhee set an ambitious goal of making Jochiwon a central economic hub with a population of 100,000 by 2025. From 2014 to 2023, a staggering 1.5 trillion won was invested, and the city was praised for its transformation." However, the actual results have been the opposite.

According to Assemblyman Kim, the population of Jochiwon, which exceeded 48,000 before the project began in 2014, has decreased to 42,000 as of 2025. While the overall population of Sejong City has surged, only Jochiwon-eup has continued to experience a decline.

He argued that this is not merely a policy failure but a clear betrayal of the northern residents, resulting in the complete disregard for the original purpose of revitalizing the area. He diagnosed, "All these problems stem from Sejong City's development strategy, which is structurally imbalanced and exclusively focused on the Administrative City."

Assemblyman Kim stated, "When asked whether northern residents are being treated fairly as 'fellow citizens of Sejong,' they can only shake their heads in tears."

Graphic provided by the Public Relations Planning Team of the Secretariat of the National Assembly

In fact, many residents have expressed their frustrations to Assemblyman Kim, whose constituency includes Jochiwon.

He proposed establishing a district office in Jochiwon-eup along with the creation of a new administrative district. To break the sense of relative deprivation and structural discrimination related to budgeting, he called for amending the Sejong City Act to achieve administrative separation for the northern region.

The current single-tier administrative system, he argued, cannot adequately address the urgent needs of northern residents. Previously, Mayor Choi also suggested to the government the establishment of administrative districts and the securing of autonomous organizational rights.

Assemblyman Kim emphasized, "We can no longer leave the northern region as the 'outcast' of Sejong City. As long as the north is dying, Sejong City's future can never be bright." He appealed, "We must establish the northern region as a new growth axis for Sejong City's development. Only when both the south and north grow together in true balanced development will Sejong City truly become the administrative capital of South Korea in both name and reality."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.