Cities of South Korea

City
Hangul	시
Hanja	市
Revised Romanization	si
McCune–Reischauer	si
Specific city
Hangul	특정시
Hanja	特定市
Revised Romanization	teukjeongsi
McCune–Reischauer	t'ŭkchŏngsi
Administrative city
Hangul	행정시
Hanja	行政市
Revised Romanization	haengjeongsi
McCune–Reischauer	haengchŏngsi

A city is a municipal administrative unit in South Korea. Cities are ranked on the same level as county and autonomous district. Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law.

City status

Under South Korean laws sets the following condition for a municipality to be designated as a city: population of a county must generally be 150,000 or greater or passage of a special legislative bill by the National Assembly such as Gyeryong.

Classifications for large municipal cities

The national government can designate cities of at least 500,000 inhabitants to have the status of Special status city. These statuses expand the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government. Also city with be reclassify as a Metropolitan city of at least 1,000,000 inhabitants, currently only Suwon and Changwon have meet the requirements but have not yet been nominated.

Specific city

A Specific city is a municipal city that has a population greater than 500,000 and has been designated as such by an order of the National Government under Article 175 of the Local Autonomy Law. Specific city are given powers to subdivide themselves into non-autonomous districts (일반구; 一般區) but, not all Specific city are subdivided into non-autonomous districts such as Gimhae, Hwaseong, or Namyangju. Currently South Korea have a total of 15 Specific cities.

City	Hangul	Hanja	Province	Population (2012)	Area	Founded	Date of designation	No. of districts
Ansan	안산시	安山市	Gyeonggi	715,313	149.06	1986-01-01	2003-12-23	2
Anyang	안양시	安養市	Gyeonggi	614,170	58.46	1973-07-01	2003-12-23	2
Bucheon	부천시	富川市	Gyeonggi	872,662	53.40	1973-07-01	2003-12-23	3
Changwon	창원시	昌原市	South Gyeongsang	1,091,733	736.34	1980-04-01	2003-12-23	5
Cheongju	청주시	淸州市	North Chungcheong	662,852	153.45	1949-08-15	2003-12-23	4
Goyang	고양시	高陽市	Gyeonggi	961,451	267.31	1992-02-01	2003-12-23	3
Jeonju	전주시	全州市	North Jeolla	647,504	206.22	1949-08-15	2003-12-23	2
Pohang	포항시	浦項市	North Gyeongsang	517,322	1128.76	1949-08-14	2003-12-23	2
Seongnam	성남시	城南市	Gyeonggi	979,412	141.82	1973-07-01	2003-12-23	3
Suwon	수원시	水原市	Gyeonggi	1,098,010	121.09	1949-08-14	2003-12-23	4
Yongin	용인시	龍仁市	Gyeonggi	898,530	591.36	1996-03-01	2003-12-23	3
Cheonan	천안시	天安市	South Chungcheong	574,148	636.22	1963-01-01	2008-06-23	2
Namyangju	남양주시	南楊州市	Gyeonggi	580,151	458.54	1989-01-01	2008-10-07	∅
Hwaseong	화성시	華城市	Gyeonggi	517,505	687.54	2001-03-21	2010-09-27	∅
Gimhae	김해시	金海市	South Gyeongsang	507,726	463.28	1981-07-01	2010-10-04	∅

Cities with more than 400,000

• Pyeongtaek (평택시 / 平澤市) - Population: 453,437; Area: 452.31 km²; Density: 1,002.49 /km²
• Uijeongbu (의정부시 / 議政府市) - Population: 431,149; Area: 81.59 km²; Density: 5,284.33 /km²
• Gumi (구미시 / 龜尾市) - Population: 417,708; Area: 617.28 km²; Density: 676.69 /km²
• Paju (파주시 / 坡州市) - Population: 416,439; Area: 672.56 km²; Density: 619.18 /km²

Administrative city

An Administrative city is a type of municipal city that are created on 1 July 2006 after the 2005 referendum in Jeju and the province was given extensive administrative powers that had previously been reserved for the central government. Since Jeju was given more autonomy cities in Jeju could not be defined by the Local Autonomy Law so this new class of city was created for Jeju. Currently only two cities are classify as Administrative city.

City	Hangul	Hanja	Province	Population (2012)	Area	Founded	Date of designation
Jeju	제주시	濟州市	Jeju	423,853	977.80	1955-09-01	2006-07-01
Seogwipo	서귀포시	西歸浦市	Jeju	153,241	870.87	1981-07-01	2006-07-01

See also

• Administrative divisions of South Korea
• Special cities of South Korea
• List of cities in South Korea