Daejeon-Chungnam Integration: What’s Next for Key Projects Amidst Political Uncertainty?

With the administrative merger between Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province (Chungnam) effectively dead, officials face an urgent need to recalibrate strategies for regional issues that were sidelined.

For months, government and political attention focused on the merger, leaving other priorities without momentum. Now, regardless of whether the merger proceeds, local leaders must sharpen both their persuasive arguments and implementation plans for each issue.

The deadline to apply for central government funding is at the end of next month, and with local elections scheduled for June, parties are racing to lock policy pledges into platforms. Officials say they must elevate core items—completing the Daejeon–Chungnam innovation city, supporting the retirement of coal-fired power plants, and relocating Daejeon Prison—onto the main agenda.

An urgent task is support for decommissioning coal-fired power plants. Beginning with Taean Thermal Unit 1 late last year, Chungnam plans to phase out 22 units by 2038, but authorities lack a follow-up plan.

A Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy study projected tens of trillions of KRW (approximately 7.5–67.5 billion USD) in economic losses from reduced output and lower value added if the plants close—yet, despite broad social and political agreement on the need for legal and institutional support, related bills have repeatedly stalled.

The 21st National Assembly already repealed one related law, and more than 16 special bills in the 22nd Assembly remain pending. The longer support is delayed, the greater the risks of population outflow, worker job insecurity, supplier bankruptcies, and local business decline.

Relocating Daejeon Prison is another long-standing issue. Built in Daejeong-dong, Yuseong-gu in 1984, the facility marks its 42nd year this year and suffers from aging infrastructure, overcrowding, and effects that hinder balanced urban development. In 2017 officials selected a relocation site in Bang-dong, Yuseong-gu, but the plan stalled over questions of economic feasibility and became a long-term project.

After several working-level talks last December among the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, Daejeon City, and LH (Korea Land & Housing Corporation), authorities agreed to pursue a hybrid delivery model combining LH entrusted development with a Justice Ministry BTL (build-transfer-lease) private-investment approach.

However, Daejeon City’s request to be exempted from the preliminary feasibility study was rejected, so officials still face follow-up steps such as reapplying. The city, lawmakers, and related agencies will need to resolve multiple coordination issues.

Uncertainty is also growing around the innovation city that would span Daejeon and Chungnam. Designated as a second-phase innovation city in October 2020, it has seen no follow-up actions, and plans to relocate public agencies have become an incentive for merger proponents—heightening anxiety in Daejeon and Chungnam.

Daejeon City and South Chungcheong Province insist that public-agency relocations are a separate matter, not a precondition for administrative integration, and they remain on alert. They are taking steps to minimize losses from a failed merger, such as missing out on key agencies. There is wariness that early movers like Gwangju–Jeonnam will pursue strategies to attract the most sought-after agencies.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok told the 10th National Policy Coordination Meeting on the 5th that the government will “minimize agencies remaining in the Seoul area and avoid piecemeal, grab-and-split distribution,” and he pledged to confirm relocation targets this year and begin moves in 2027, focusing attention on Daejeon and Chungnam.

Other key projects—creating the Daejeon urban convergence zone; building a national nano and semiconductor industrial complex; constructing the Chungcheong Second Outer Ring Expressway; building the Boryeong–Daejeon highway; establishing a National Dental Research Institute in Cheonan; and locating the second Central Police Academy in Chungnam—will likely hinge on government and political support.