Assemblyman Lee Jaegwan Proposes Bill to Relax Population Requirement to 500,000 for Non-Capital Special Cities

Expectations Grow for Special City Designation in Cheonan, Cheongju, Pohang, and Gimhae-si

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Jae-gwan (Cheonan, Chungnam) has introduced the "Partial Amendment to the Local Autonomy Act" and the "Partial Amendment to the Special Act on Local Autonomy Decentralization and Regional Balanced Development" as the main sponsor.

Lee Jae-gwan, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Chungnam Cheonan), announced on the 24th that he has taken the lead in proposing two bills as his first legislative initiatives: the "Partial Amendment to the Local Autonomy Act" and the "Partial Amendment to the Special Act on Decentralization and Regional Balanced Development," aimed at easing the criteria for designating special cities to respond to the crisis of local extinction.

According to his office, with the full revision of the Local Autonomy Act allowing metropolitan cities with a population of over 1 million to be designated as special cities, four cities including Suwon, Yongin, Goyang in Gyeonggi Province, and Changwon in Gyeongnam Province were launched as special cities in January 2022. However, the concentration of special cities in the metropolitan area has further exacerbated regional imbalances.

In particular, Changwon City faces a high possibility of losing its special city status by 2029 due to continuous population decline.

The "Partial Amendment to the Local Autonomy Act," which Lee proposed as his first bill, lowers the population criteria for designating special cities to metropolitan cities with a population of over 1 million in the metropolitan area, and to metropolitan cities with a population of over 500,000 in non-metropolitan areas.

Additionally, in cases where there are no metropolitan cities with a population over 500,000 within a metropolitan local government, a city designated through consultation between the Minister of the Interior and Safety and the head of the metropolitan local government can also obtain special city status. This is the main point of the amendment.

Along with this, the main content of the "Partial Amendment to the Special Act on Decentralization and Regional Balanced Development" clarifies that the central government or metropolitan local government heads can provide necessary administrative and financial support to handle special affairs.

If the amendments pass, non-metropolitan cities with populations over 500,000 such as Cheonan in Chungnam (690,000), Cheongju in Chungbuk (876,000), Jeonju in Jeonbuk (653,000), Pohang in Gyeongbuk (500,000), and Gimhae in Gyeongnam (560,000) could be designated as special cities.

Lee Jae-gwan stated, "It is realistically difficult for non-metropolitan areas facing extinction due to population decline to develop into metropolitan cities with populations over 1 million. Accordingly, the criteria should be relaxed so that special cities can be designated in non-metropolitan areas as well."