South Korea declares Sejong new capital

Lady Eri

So South Korea changed its capital today. A move that came as a complete surprise to every, including the Prime Minister. Sejong, the new capital, is 95 miles further south of the DMZ and is supposedly out of the North Korean killzone.

On the one hand I understand why they did this, on the other hand keeping the government in the killzone is a good way to make sure a war doesn't happen. Do you think this will make war a lot more likely?

L|ama

If the SK government were planning on starting a war, they would move away from seoul. If the NK government were planning on starting a war, they would want the SK government in range. I don't see this making war more likely.

Shogun

Do you have any other articles you could link to? I'm not seeing anything about this from any of my news sources, and that article only mentions moving the offices due to Seoul's traffic and housing problems. It also says nothing of the city you mentioned (only some place 100 miles south) and nothing about North Korea and a killzone.

His Corkiness

From what I can tell, Sejong City is just an administrative district. They'll move various departments to there from Seoul, but Seoul will remain the capital. This, also, seems to have been the plan for at least 3 years.

ronya

BBC - in 2004. Note that the plan has nothing to do with the DMZ; the announced purpose is to escape Seoul's overcrowding.

The actual news is the new government's failure to cancel the plan; the current PM (from the opposing party) accuses the plan of being just a porkbarrel giveaway. Which is possibly true, even if its announced purpose is also valid.

As His Corkiness says, they're just creating an administrative district now, since it wasn't canceled. This isn't new, really. Quick, what's the capital of Malaysia!

Malaysia's capital is still Kuala Lumpur. The administrative center and seat of government was moved to Putrajaya in 1999, some 40km away.

L|ama

So their Capitol is not in their Capital?

Shogun

Good I was worried I was going to have to throw away my collection of South Korea has Seoul t-shirts.

Richy

Lady Eri wrote: »

So South Korea changed its capital today. A move that came as a complete surprise to every, including the Prime Minister. Sejong, the new capital, is 95 miles further south of the DMZ and is supposedly out of the North Korean killzone.

On the one hand I understand why they did this, on the other hand keeping the government in the killzone is a good way to make sure a war doesn't happen. Do you think this will make war a lot more likely?

If I wanted to start a war and I had the option to move my capital around, I would keep it a secret. If the enemy doesn't know where the capital is, they can't attack it. The info will get out eventually, but the longer the enemy can sit there scratching their heads wondering how I can effectively lead a war from the rubbles of what used to be the capital the better. There's no point in giving them the correct target to shoot at right from the start.

So, no, I don't think this makes a war more likely to happen.

ronya

L|ama wrote: »

So their Capitol is not in their Capital?

Pretty much? Well, the seat of government will still be in Seoul, as I understand the plan. So the "capitol" will still be in Seoul. But the paperwork will be done elsewhere.

It's a problem whenever your capital city is also your biggest financial and industrial city. Seoul is large:

Wikipedia wrote:

With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities and is by far the most densely populated city among OECD nations. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the Incheon metropolis and most of Gyeonggi province, has 24.5 million inhabitants, and is the world's second largest metropolitan area. Almost half of South Korea's population live in the Seoul National Capital Area, and nearly a quarter in Seoul itself, making it the country's foremost economic, political, and cultural center.

Jintor

Misleading title is misleading.

ronya wrote: »

Malaysia's capital is still Kuala Lumpur. The administrative center and seat of government was moved to Putrajaya in 1999, some 40km away.

Man, I lived there for a while and I was under the asumption KL just sprawled really big.

Anarchy Rules!

Same thing in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague) and South Africa (Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Capetown). It's no big deal really.

ronya

Ooh, I didn't know about South Africa.

Wikipedia says Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. How do you have a judicial capital? Doesn't seem like it would employ a lot of people. And, behold, it has a glorious 370,000 people, next to Pretoria's 2.3 million or Cape Town's 3.5. More like judicial suburb, mirite. :P

Pi-r8

This is good. The place it was before was in a really weird location, right next to highway and train tracks on one side, and a bunch of office buildings on the other. Hopefully the new site will look a little more stately.

Corbius

Yeah Sejong is not really the new Capital, its just an effort to reduce overcrowding in Seoul, and somewhat decentralize the administrative parts of the government.

Hell, they made a big government complex years ago in Daejeon to do the same thing.

Thanatos

Even if this were the case, the idea that it would make war more likely is ridiculous.

"Oh, we've moved some of the government buildings to another city; now, we should feel free to declare war on North Korea, secure in the knowledge that they will only turn our largest city into a parking lot; no downsides, there!"