Special cities are one of the first-level administrative divisions within

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 ...

. There is one first-level city in South Korea:

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 ...

Position in hierarchy and types

Special cities have equal status to

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the South Korean administrative scheme, and are among the highest-ranked administrative divisions of South Korea. There are three kinds of first-level city in South Korea. * Seoul was designated a "special free city" (''teukbyeol jayusi''; ; ) separate from

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

on August 15, 1946; it became a "special city" on August 15, 1949. * Metropolitan cities were called "direct control (meaning directly-administered) city" (''jikhalsi''; ; ) before 1995.

Administration

In South Korean special city and metropolitan cities, the Mayor is the highest-ranking official in charge. The Mayor is directly elected by the people registered in the city for a duration of four years. e.g.

Mayor of Seoul The Mayor of Seoul () is the chief executive of Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul being the capital and largest city of South Korea. The position is historically one of the most powerful in the country, charged with managing an annual budge ...

. Metropolitan functions such as water supply and public transport are integrated into the sole prefecture other than scattered to each municipality.

List of metropolitan cities

Notes: There are no Hanja for "Seoul"; in

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, it is written as / (), a transcription based on the pronunciation of "Seoul". As a suffix, the character ''Gyeong'' (/) is used, which means "capital".

Specific cities that meet the minimum requirements for Metropolitan city status but have not yet been nominated

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 ...

(수원시 / ) - Population: 1,194,465; Area: 121.04 km²; Density: 9,868.34 /km² *

Changwon Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...

(창원시 / ) - Population: 1,054,154; Area: 747.12 km²; Density: 1,410.95 /km² *

Yongin Yongin () is a city in the Seoul Capital Area, the largest in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population over 1 million, the city has developed rapidly since the 21st century, recording the highest population growth of any city in the count ...

(용인시 / ) - Population: 1,048,832; Area: 591.32 km²; Density: 1,773.71 /km² *

Goyang Goyang (''Goyang-si''; ) is a city in Gyeonggi Province in the north of South Korea. It is part of the Seoul Capital Area, making Goyang one of Seoul's satellite cities. It is one of the largest cities in the Seoul Capital Area, with a populatio ...

(고양시 / ) - Population: 1,043,035; Area: 267.41 km²; Density: 3,900.50 /km²

Specific cities with more than 900,000

Seongnam Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential cit ...

(성남시 / ) - Population: 942,649; Area: 141.72 km²; Density: 6,651.48 /km²

References

{{regions and administrative divisions of South Korea