▲ Prime Minister Han Seong-sook speaks during a briefing on government agency relocation plans at the government complex in Seoul on Sept. 3, 2026. (Yonhap)

(ATTN: UPDATES with details, background in paras 5-10; CHANGES photo)

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The government will move central administrative agencies remaining in the Seoul metropolitan area to the central city of Sejong starting next year, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said Thursday.

The government will also aim to complete a second presidential office in the administrative city by August 2029 and make sure the planned construction of a second National Assembly building in Sejong will be completed as planned by 2030, Han said during a press conference.

"Starting in the first half of 2027, we will push for the relocation of central administrative organizations located in the Seoul metropolitan area to the Sejong special self-governing city, beginning with those with large relocation sizes and ripple effects," Han said.

"Sejong is the symbol and central axis of balanced national development," she said. "We will build a Sejong office of the president in August 2029 so as to put the administration's center in Sejong while providing support for the planned completion of the National Assembly hall in Sejong in 2030."

The announcement marks the latest in a series of government agency relocations that have been carried out by successive administrations for more than a decade as part of efforts to ease the concentration of national functions in Seoul and promote balanced national development.

Relocations first got under way in 2012 when the prime minister's office became the first central government agency to move to Sejong. According to the National Agency for Administrative City Construction, 44 central government organizations have since completed relocation to the city.

Han said public institutions will also move to Sejong.

Based on the principle of minimizing those staying put, the government will announce specific relocation plans in the fourth quarter of this year for 350 institutions located in the Seoul metropolitan area and start moving them next year, Han said.

The number of public institutions will also be reduced by 109, Han said, through structural reforms, the unification of similar and overlapping functions, and the consolidation of small-scale institutions.

"In response to the rapidly changing policy environment, we will boldly reform the functions of public institutions," she said. "Each ministry will establish implementation procedures, such as functional reform road maps, and institutions that do not require procedures such as legal amendments will commence implementation immediately."

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