Why Is the Defense Ministry Exempt From the Sejong Move? Is It Because of ‘Defending Seoul’?

The Defense Ministry may soon stand alone in Seoul as nearly all of South Korea’s central government ministries move to Sejong. The government said on the 3rd that it would begin relocating the Justice Ministry and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in the first half of 2027, after lawmakers amend the law that currently excludes them from the move.

The final list of ministries will be confirmed and formally announced in the fourth quarter. The Foreign Ministry and Unification Ministry are also being considered for relocation around 2030, when the presidential office in Sejong is scheduled to move, or 2033, when a legislative branch is expected to open there.

That would leave only the Defense Ministry in Seoul among the central administrative ministries. The government has not publicly stated why it is excluding the ministry. Within and around the Defense Ministry, however, many people see the answer in the military principle known as “defending Seoul.”

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The Foreign Ministry and Unification Ministry are being considered for relocation around 2030, when the presidential office moves to Sejong, or 2033, when a legislative branch opens there.

The idea became a basic assumption of South Korean security policy after North Korean forces captured Seoul three days after the Korean War began on June 25, 1950. Earlier plans to move government and military institutions away from the capital repeatedly prompted concern that the country might be giving up on defending Seoul. In the late 1980s, the Roh Tae-woo government moved the Army, Navy and Air Force headquarters to Gyeryongdae while keeping the Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff in Yongsan. The stated reasons included balanced regional development and reducing the capital region’s population, but security concerns also played a major role because the military headquarters would move beyond the range of North Korean long-range artillery aimed at Seoul.

When the Army headquarters moved in 1989, then Army Chief of Staff Lee Jong-koo said the Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs would remain in Seoul, so the move would not hinder the defense of the capital. Since the three services completed their move to Gyeryongdae in 1993, the Defense Ministry in Yongsan has become a symbol of that commitment. Its personnel work at the Seoul headquarters in peacetime, but move to the B1 bunker near the Capital Defense Command during wartime or South Korea-US combined exercises. The bunker would house the president, the government’s main institutions, the Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs as a wartime command center.

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There is concern that the concept of defending Seoul could fade with the relocation of the three service headquarters, but the move will facilitate military operations and help defend the capital region. Since the Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff will remain in Seoul, it will not hinder the defense of the capital at all.