Deregulation of the Capital Area Leading to the Decline of Non-capital Regions

It is very likely that a strongly centralized state should gather most of its human and material resources into its capital area. For the last fifty years, this concentration into the capital area has been carried out in Korea most intensively among the OECD countries. There are, however, constant voices to ask the deregulation of the capital area, though such deregulation can encourage its already excessive concentration more and more. Rather than contributing to the national welfare, the bloated centralization is actually bringing about problems like overpopulation of the capital area and the decline of the non-capital regions. While, ideally speaking, we should move from the centralized state to the decentralized one, a feasible kind of solution for the problems is to regulate the capital area using a project like the Capital Region Readjustment Planning Act, at least in order to reduce the concentration. The study is dealing with problems concerning the excessive concentration on the capital area like traffic congestion costs, environmental pollution, unbalanced distribution of resources, on the one hand, and problems regarding the hollowing-out of the non-capital regions such as economic decline, decrease in population, relocation of local universities into the capital area, on the other. The deregulation of the capital area should be handled with caution in view of the survival of the non-capital regions.