Sejong expects 10,000 new residents as Justice Ministry, police relocate

SEJONG — Sejong stands to gain more than 10,000 new residents as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the National Police Agency and the country's new prosecution agencies prepare to relocate to the city, according to a Sejong City analysis on Friday. 

The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family are set to begin relocating to Sejong in the first half of next year, while the prosecution service — now split into the serious crimes investigation agency and the public prosecution service — and the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) will move once they secure office buildings, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said. 

The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family have a combined authorized workforce of about 1,300, Sejong City office said. The KNPA and the prosecution agencies together employ about 3,000. Assuming three family members per employee, the city's analysis puts the arithmetic population effect at more than 10,000. The Daejeon office of the serious crimes investigation agency will also launch in Sejong on Oct. 2, with about 260 employees expected to work there.

Factoring in affiliated facilities and organizations tied to the central ministries, some forecasts put the total inflow above 20,000. Also, more agencies could be added to the relocation list as plans for various government committees are finalized and as a public institution relocation plan, expected in October, is announced. The population effect is expected to fully take hold in the first half of next year, when the Justice Ministry and the Gender Equality Ministry begin their moves.

Sejong's population has fallen steadily since the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries left for Busan last December, dropping from 399,271 on Dec. 14 to 397,290 as of Thursday, a decline of 1,981.

The relocations have made housing plans for incoming employees an urgent priority. In Sejong's early years after its 2012 launch, the city ran a special supply program that set aside priority apartment purchases for employees of relocating agencies, with the National Agency for Administrative City Construction and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport allocating up to 70 percent of apartment supply to civil servants. The program was scrapped in 2021 amid controversy over favoritism.

But the recently announced moves are reviving calls for the special supply system, discontinued five years ago, in consultation with the Land Ministry as part of the government's second wave of central agency relocations. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said at a Thursday press conference on the administrative and public institution relocation plan and public institution function reform plan that the government "will provide substantial support for relocation and housing costs to ensure that employees of the relocated agencies do not experience any inconvenience."

Separately, Sejong City is considering setting aside 10 percent of the 2,000 private apartment units set to go on sale from October through December as special supply for employees of relocating agencies. Under housing supply rules, local government heads can allocate up to 20 percent of general supply as special supply without creating a new program.

Of that, the city said up to 10 to 12 percent could go to employees of relocating agencies. Sejong currently has an estimated 65,000 apartment units available for supply, though few units have gone on sale in the city over the past two to three years. "We can secure special-supply apartment volume at the city's discretion without creating a separate program," a city official said. "But when a relocation plan of this scale comes out, as it did this time, it seems we'll need further consultation with the Land Ministry on the special-supply system."

BY KIM BANG-HYUN [[email protected]]