South Korea to Open Sejong Presidential Office in 2029, 300 Agencies Relocate

The South Korean government today formally announced a highly anticipated national spatial and administrative re‑organisation blueprint, confirming that a second presidential office will be established in the administrative capital of Sejong City by August 2029, and that roughly 350 public agencies currently located in the capital region will be gradually relocated. This decisive move not only marks a new turning point in addressing the decades‑long over‑concentration of the Seoul metropolitan area, but also puts into concrete action the political promises of successive administrations to balance regional development and ease the heavy burden on the Seoul megacity.

Looking back at the history of efforts to disperse the administrative capital, the creation of Sejong City itself has been a cross‑party, long‑term political marathon. During the 2002 presidential election, candidate Roh Moo‑hyun proposed moving the administrative capital to South Chungcheong Province in order to break Seoul’s one‑party dominance and to alleviate the vicious cycle of overcrowding and soaring housing prices. Although the Constitutional Court later ruled that the capital must remain in Seoul, a compromise plan for an “administrative centre complex city” was pursued, cementing Sejong’s role as the nation’s administrative hub. Over the years, many ministries and agencies have successively moved their offices to Sejong, yet the presidential office and the principal national security and foreign‑policy decision‑making bodies have remained in Seoul. This has long drawn criticism of “low administrative efficiency.” Whenever the National Assembly convenes or the president must travel to Sejong for cabinet meetings, officials and staff spend considerable time shuttling between Seoul and Sejong, inflating administrative costs and diminishing the immediacy of governance.

To eradicate the inefficiencies created by a dual‑city arrangement, the government’s newly released timetable shows that construction of the second presidential office will be accelerated, with a target of full completion and operational use by August 2029. The plan will give future presidents a fully functional office in Sejong, allowing them to sit regularly in the city and directly command the ministries already based there. This is expected to markedly reduce inter‑city travel, concentrate the central government’s administrative focus, and improve inter‑departmental coordination, decision‑making speed and quality.

In addition to the second presidential office, a second core element of the relocation plan is the phased transfer of about 350 public institutions that are still clustered in the capital region. For a long time, Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area have housed more than half of South Korea’s population, the overwhelming majority of top universities, corporate headquarters and financial resources. The resulting “Seoul Republic” phenomenon has driven soaring housing prices, chronic traffic congestion and an increasingly severe low‑birth‑rate problem, while peripheral cities have suffered population outflows and economic contraction. By moving a large number of public agencies to Sejong and other innovative regional cities, the government aims to create a “lead‑sheep” magnet effect, drawing related industry chains, research institutes and private firms to follow suit, thereby revitalising local economies and achieving balanced development across the country.

Nevertheless, the seemingly grand decentralisation blueprint faces a host of practical challenges and concerns. The foremost is the massive fiscal outlay and infrastructure pressure required to construct a second presidential office that meets head‑of‑state specifications and security standards, and to properly accommodate hundreds of agencies and their tens of thousands of employees and families. Moreover, many public‑sector workers slated for relocation are reluctant to move their households to Sejong, where living amenities still lag behind those of Seoul, raising the risk of talent loss or declining morale. Despite these obstacles, the structural saturation of the capital region makes the southward shift of the administrative centre an unavoidable national strategy. As the 2029 deadline draws near, whether Sejong can truly transform into an internationally competitive, efficiently operating administrative capital will test the current administration’s resolve and will profoundly influence South Korea’s future power layout and sustainable social development.

(Source: Central News Agency)