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SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- The foreign, unification and defense ministries will relocate from Seoul to the central administrative city of Sejong by 2031 as part of a broader government agency relocation plan affecting nearly 10,000 public servants, the interior ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry announced the plan following last month's decision to relocate some government ministries and public institutions to Sejong, about 110 kilometers south of Seoul, starting next year.
A total of 44 ministries and agencies will relocate in phases between next year and 2031, depending on the requirements of the particular agency and the availability of office space.
"The relocation of central administrative bodies to Sejong is a key national strategy aimed at overcoming the capital area-centered system and efficiently using our land to achieve sustainable growth and a new leap forward," Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said at a press briefing at the government complex in Seoul.
Of the 44 subject to relocation, 27 ministries and agencies will start moving to temporarily rented office spaces in Sejong next year. In the first half of 2027, six agencies, including the Korea Media and Communications Commission, the Personal Information Protection Commission, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, will relocate.
Nineteen agencies, including the Financial Services Commission, various ministry-affiliated organizations and advisory panels, will follow suit in the second half of 2027.
The justice ministry and the gender equality ministry will begin moving to Sejong next year pending an envisioned revision to a law that earlier exempted them from relocation.
Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung (2nd from R) gives a press briefing on plans to relocate government agencies to the central administrative city of Sejong, at the government complex in Seoul on Oct. 13, 2026. (Yonhap)
The remaining 17 agencies and ministries will relocate in phases by 2031 after the completion of a new government building in the city as they require private spaces for investigation, security or oversight purposes.
They include the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Prosecution Service, the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, the National Police Agency and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, as well as the ministries of foreign affairs, unification and national defense.
Separately, the Sejong offices of the president and the National Assembly are due for completion in 2029 and 2033, respectively.
The plan affects the workplaces of 9,929 public servants, and the government said it plans to devise measures to support their living arrangements, relocation and commute.
The announcement marks the latest in a series of government agency relocations that have been carried out by successive administrations for more than a decade as part of efforts to ease the concentration of national functions in Seoul and promote balanced national development.
Relocations first got under way in 2012 when the prime minister's office became the first central government agency to move to Sejong. According to the National Agency for Administrative City Construction, 44 central government organizations have since completed relocation to the city.
hague@yna.co.kr
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