Local Government of South Korea
Contents
Provinces
Provinces (도, do) are the primary form of upper-level local government in South Korea.
Jeju is technically a special self-governing province (특별자치도, teukbyeol-jachido).
Elections
The head of local government for any province is the governor. Governors are elected to 4-year terms.
Special Cities
A special city (특별시, teukbyeolsi) has equal standing to provinces. Currently only the capital city (Seoul) has this status.
A similar status exists for the planned capital (Sejong). Currently it is categorized as a special self-governing city (특별자치시, teukbyeoljachisi).
Elections
The head of local government for a special city is the mayor. Mayors are elected to 4-year terms.
Metropolitan Cities
Metropolitan cities (광역시, gwangyeoksi) have equal standing to provinces but operate differently. For example, utility services are managed by the city rather than devolved to lower-level local government.
These cities cannot serve as the capital for the provinces they are otherwise contained in. When a city is nominated for and re-categorized with metropolitan city status, provincial government often needs to be moved to a smaller city.
Several cities meet the requirements for metropolitan city status but have not been nominated.
Elections
The head of local government for a metropolitan city is the mayor. Mayors are elected to 4-year terms.
History
Until 1995, these were categorized as direct control cities (직할시, jikhalsi).
Counties
Counties (군, gun) are the primary form of lower-level local government. They contain towns (eup) and townships (myeon) and no more than 150,000 residents.
Because these divisions are rural in nature, they are mostly used in provinces and not in metropolitan cities. The exceptions are Busan, Daegu, Incheon and Ulsan.
Cities
Cities (시, si) have equal standing to counties. The contain at least one neighborhood (dong) and can have towns and townships.
A large city (having a population over 500,000) is considered as a specific city, which are authorized to create districts (gu).
Governance
The head of city government is the mayor. Mayors are appointed by the provincial governor.
Districts
Districts (구, gu) are a form of lower-level local government.
Elections and Governance
Metropolitan and special cities can create autonomous districts, which have mayors and legislatures.
Municipal cities can only create non-autonomous districts, which lack this self-governance structure.
Towns
Towns (읍, eup) are the urban divisions of counties and smaller cities. ('Small' matching the above distinction between cities and specific cities; a population of 500,000 is the threshold.)
Townships
Townships (면, myeon) are the rural divisions of counties and smaller cities.
Neighborhood
Neighborhoods (동, dong) are the lowest level of urban government with offices and staff.
In some cases, a legal neighborhood is subdivided into administrative neighborhoods. These would be named using the legal neighborhood and a numeral. For example, Myeongjang 1 and Myeongjang 2.
In the most populous neighborhoods, a further subdivision (가, ga) exists for postal service.