South Korea will relocate central government agencies from the greater Seoul area to Sejong starting in the first half of next year and reorganize 109 public institutions, equivalent to 20% of the country’s 525 institutions. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook announced the measures on the 3rd, framing balanced regional growth as essential to addressing the capital region’s concentration. The changes include splitting Korea Land & Housing Corporation into separate housing-supply and housing-welfare institutions, merging state energy companies and power-generation subsidiaries, consolidating four regional port authorities, and combining Korail with SR Corporation. Detailed relocation plans are scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Headquarters locations for merged institutions remain unresolved, and the government says employees will retain their jobs except executives. Several ministries and the Financial Services Commission were not officially named, but Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-jung said that omission does not mean they are excluded from relocation.