"Is it easy to uproot your whole life? I'm thinking about working only until the move to the provinces and then quitting."
An acquaintance who works at a public institution in Seoul says this every time we meet. The acquaintance also described colleagues who are weighing transfers to different posts or trying to change jobs to avoid being relocated outside the capital. I did not press for the reasons they are willing to give up a stable job, or take on unfamiliar work, just to stay in Seoul.
The government said on the 13th that 44 central administrative agencies and other bodies, along with 9,929 civil servants, will move to Sejong by 2031. Of those, 2,995 officials at 27 agencies will relocate first next year. More than 350 public institutions based in the greater Seoul area will then be dispersed across the country. The stated aim is to ease concentration in the capital region and promote balanced regional development, but it is unclear how much preparation has gone into meeting the housing demand created by the moves, or into making the destinations attractive places to settle.
Seoul is not just where these people work. It is where their spouses work, where their children go to school, and where they have built their lives over many years. Relocating to Sejong or elsewhere outside the capital is not simply a change of workplace but a decision that requires redesigning an entire family's life. Housing is the immediate problem. The number of units in multi-family housing complexes of 30 or more households scheduled for move-in next year in Sejong is zero. Thousands of people are about to have their workplaces changed, yet new housing supply to support relocation demand beginning as early as next year is limited.
The government is providing moving costs and initial relocation allowances to transferring officials and is also considering temporary transportation support, but measures like these cannot offset the burden of moving an entire family's life. If housing costs are added to the difficulty of leaving Seoul, the relocation of agencies is unlikely to translate into a dispersal of population. The same applies to employees of public institutions who will be scattered to innovation cities around the country. Many are likely to take up their posts alone, apart from their families.
It will not do to promise an end to concentration in the capital region while leaving people to shoulder high housing costs in the provinces and struggle to settle in. Agency relocation, housing supply, and expanded education and living infrastructure must all proceed together and in sufficient measure. What the government needs to consider is not how many civil servants it can send out of the capital, but how to make them stay. Balanced development will be complete not on the day the government buildings open in Sejong, but on the day people choose to make that place their home.
