ED Push for capital relocation

Ruling party should first build consensus

Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has reignited a debate about relocating the country's capital to the newly built administrative town of Sejong, 130 kilometers south of Seoul. On Monday, Kim called for Cheong Wa Dae, other remaining government offices and the National Assembly to be moved out of Seoul to Sejong.

The next day he proposed the establishment of a special National Assembly committee to discuss how to “complete the formation of an administrative capital.” He emphasized the need for a “balanced development” of the country through the relocation of the capital. His proposal is gaining support from some DPK heavyweights such as former Prime Minister Rep. Lee Nak-yon, and former Interior Minister Kim Boo-kyum.

Even President Moon Jae-in has virtually endorsed the suggestion by making a pitch for balanced development in his recently announced Korean New Deal program. During a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Moon said the program was aimed at “shifting the axis of national development” from the capital and its surrounding metropolitan area to other parts of the country.

We could not agree more with President Moon and Rep. Kim. It is imperative for South Korea to address decentralization with the serious problem of economic and demographic concentration in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province where 50.2 percent of the country's population resides.

But the liberal government and the ruling DPK should take a more careful and sophisticated approach toward the capital relocation issue. The Roh Moo-hyun administration tried and failed to push for a similar plan in the face of strong objections from conservative opposition parties and residents of Seoul and the sprawling metropolitan area. The opponents brought the issue to the Constitutional Court which ruled in October 2004 that the relocation plan was unconstitutional.

The ruling made the Roh government push for its plan on a limited basis. As a result, the next government under President Lee Myung-bak began to move government ministries and agencies to Sejong in 2012. But the presidential office, several ministries including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and other judiciary buildings remain in Seoul.

Now, the Moon administration is pushing for the once-botched plan to relocate all the buildings of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary to Sejong. The new push is nothing more than a relocation of the capital to the new administrative town. That is why such a plan requires a constitutional revision.

The government and the DPK should first build a national consensus in order to revive the relocation plan. If they cannot do so, the plan cannot be pushed again. The conservative main opposition United Future Party (UFP) is firmly against the relocation although it agrees on the need for decentralization.

By proposing the capital relocation, the DPK is also trying to bring the issue of a constitutional amendment to the fore. Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug and Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun have recently floated the idea of changing the basic law since Moon failed to push for the revision in time for the June 2018 local election. It, however, remains to be seen whether the ruling camp can successfully push for an amendment to change the power structure and relocate the capital to the new city.