Cheongju advocates for Special City status and reformed designation criteria

Cheongju City and local lawmakers held a forum at the National Assembly to advocate for the designation of Cheongju as a ‘Special City’ and to reform the current criteria for such status. The discussion focused on addressing the crisis of local extinction by proposing a dual system for Special City designation that differentiates between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.

Currently, the Special City designation is primarily based on a uniform population threshold of 1 million residents, a standard that has resulted in five designated cities, most of which are in the capital region. Participants argued that this rigid metric fails to account for the administrative needs, regional roles, and economic functions of major hub cities in non-metropolitan areas. Cheongju Mayor Lee Jang-seop emphasized that the designation is not about special privileges, but about expanding self-determination and administrative authority to match the city's actual scale and growing administrative demands.

Legislative efforts are already underway, with members of the National Assembly proposing amendments to the Local Autonomy Act to lower the population threshold for non-metropolitan cities to between 500,000 and 700,000 residents.