Ruling party fast-tracks regional merger, opposition cries foul

High-speed train passengers are seen in Daejeon Station on Dec. 11. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea is moving to fast-track a merger of Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province, calling it a game-changer for a country long struggling with population concentration in the greater Seoul region.

The main opposition People Power Party, however, has accused the party and the government of rushing the plan to gain an electoral edge in next year's local elections — setting off yet another clash between the rival parties.

Rep. Park Soo-hyun, senior spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, said Sunday that the merger would help the country overcome a population decline in regions other than the Greater Seoul area, which includes Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. It could also help tackle other regional crises and serve as "a model for a series of mergers in other regional divisions," he added.

Park denied speculations that it was a political tactic for the 2026 election.

Since last week, the ruling bloc has floated the merger plan, claiming it would be a crucial step in tackling the imbalance in national economic growth due to the extreme clustering of the nation's population in Seoul.

President Lee Jae Myung floated the merger of the two administrative divisions into one during his Thursday lunch meeting with 14 Democratic Party lawmakers elected in Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province. Daejeon was separated from South Chungcheong Province in 1989 and has since operated as a metropolitan city.

Lee said the newly merged division should elect its first leader in the upcoming June local election, and the central government should provide administrative support in doing so, according to presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung on Thursday.

This followed the ruling party's announcement Friday that it would form a special committee led by first-term lawmaker Rep. Hwang Myeong-seon. Hwang represents a constituency comprising Nonsan, Gyeryong and Geumsan-gun in South Chungcheong Province.

The party also mapped out the blueprint for the bill to pass the National Assembly's plenary session by March, as it controls the majority of the parliament. There are speculations that the special committee will convene its first meeting in the coming week and propose the special bill before the end of this year.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety announced Friday that it set July 1 as the target date for the merger, which would pave the way for its leader to be elected in the June election and start their term then. The decision was the outcome of a high-level meeting between the Interior Ministry, Daejeon municipal government and the South Chungcheong Province local government.

The ruling bloc will "proceed with the plan as swiftly as possible," senior spokesperson Park said Sunday.

Critics question the timing of the merger, saying the ruling party had effectively objected to the merger proposed by the opposition party until its U-turn last week.

Four-term Rep. Kim Do-eup, policy committee chief of the People Power Party, suspected Friday that the move took into account the possibility of presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik running to head the newly merged local authority. Kang was a three-term lawmaker representing the Asan-B constituency in South Chungcheong Province before he resigned to become Lee’s top aide.

"This controversy draws suspicions that the president is evidently intervening in the local election," said Kim of the People Power Party.

Rep. Park Sung-hoon, senior spokesperson of the People Power Party, said the shoddy plan announced just ahead of the election was a surprise move, as the ruling party had turned down an opposition-led bill to merge Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province in October.

"As the local election is just six months away, (the ruling bloc) is pushing for the shoddy plan that could change the lives of citizens in the region forever, but neither a shrewd review nor a public debate existed because their decision was based on political calculation," he said.

Rep. Park Jeong-hyeon of the Democratic Party argued Friday that the main opposition party’s special bill was “hardly realistic.”

Merger proposals for other administrative divisions in South Korea are reemerging years after they fell through.

Democratic Party Rep. Jeong Jun-ho of the Buk-gu constituency of Gwangju vowed legislation of a separate special bill in February to merge Gwangju and South Jeolla Province into one administrative division, and elect its new leader in the 2026 local election.

The previous push for a Gwangju and South Jeolla Province merger effectively collapsed after former Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong-sup ended his tenure in 2022. Lee had led the merger by reaching a consensus in 2020 with South Jeolla Province Gov. Kim Yung-rok.