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A ''dong'' or neighborhood is a submunicipal level administrative unit of a
city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and of those
cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
which are not divided into wards throughout
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
. The unit is often translated as neighborhood and has been used in both administrative divisions of
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
and
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
.No, (1993), p.208


In South Korea

A ''dong'' is, usually, the smallest level of urban-area division to have its own office and staff in South Korea. There are two types of ''dong'': legal-status neighborhood () and administrative neighborhood (). For land property and (old) address, legal-status neighborhood is mainly used. Unlike what the name indicates, they are not defined by any
written law The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
. Instead, most of names are came from
customary law A legal custom is the established pattern of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. A claim can be carried out in defense of "what has always been done and accepted by law". Customary law (also, consuetudina ...
, which indicates historical names. Administrative neighborhood, however, is defined by local governments to make an office (community center). Community centers provide some administrative services such as residential/birth registration or death notification, to relief service pressure of local government. Also, electoral districts are based on administrative neighborhood. In usual cases, an administrative neighborhood is set by population of the area to match demands for the civil services. Because legal-status neighborhood uses historical name, recently developed (populated) area can be grouped as a single legal-status neighborhood. In such places, it can be divided into several administrative neighborhoods.
Sillim-dong Sillim or ''Sillim-dong'' is a statutory division of Gwanak District, Seoul, South Korea. Seoul National University and Nokdu Street are located in the town. Its name means "new forest", which was derived from the woods outstretched from Mt. Gwana ...
is a typical example for this case. For the same reason, there are some inverse cases, i.e. a single administrative neighborhood holding multiple legal-status neighborhoods. Such cases contain undeveloped suburban area, or recently declining area. The primary division of a ''dong'' is the ''tong'' (), but divisions at this level and below are used rarely in daily life. Cases using ''tong'' contain school districts or military services. Some ''dong'' are subdivided into ''ga'' (), which are not a separate level of government but only exist for use in addresses. Many major thoroughfares in
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
,
Suwon Suwon (, ) is the capital and largest city of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea's most populous province which surrounds Seoul, the national capital. Suwon lies about south of Seoul. It is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety". With a populati ...
, and other cities are also subdivided into ''ga''.


See also

*
Administrative divisions of North Korea The administrative divisions of North Korea are organized into three hierarchical levels. These divisions were created in 2002. Many of the units have equivalents in the system of South Korea. At the highest level are nine provinces and fou ...
*
Administrative divisions of South Korea South Korea is made up of 17 first-tier administrative divisions: 6 metropolitan cities (''gwangyeoksi'' ), 1 special city (''teukbyeolsi'' ), 1 special self-governing city (''teukbyeol-jachisi'' ), and 9 provinces ('' do'' ), including one ...


Notes


References

* Hunter, Helen-Louise. (1999), ''Kim Il-sŏng's North Korea'', Greenwood Publishing Group, * Nelson, Laura C. (2000) ''Measured excess: status, gender, and consumer nationalism in South Korea'', Columbia University Press, * Yusuf, Shahid; Evenett, Simon J., Wu, Weiping. (2001) ''Facets of globalization: international and local dimensions of development'' World Bank Publications, pp. 226–227 * No, Chŏng-hyŏn (1993) ''Public administration and the Korean transformation: concepts, policies, and value conflicts'', Kumarian Press,
Korea, South South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
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