Issue Polarisation between overcrowded and hollowing cities

Summary

Korea is simultaneously experiencing overcrowding, as people, functions and development concentrate in the Seoul capital region and some big-city centres, and hollowing-out in the old centres of provincial cities and non-urban areas. In provincial cities the resident population keeps falling while economic activity and infrastructure investment in central districts shrink, bringing physical, social and economic decline. Capital-region congestion creates high housing costs and a competitive living environment that feeds back into low fertility, while physical decay and a lack of jobs elsewhere drive young people out and push regions toward extinction. Many old centres of provincial cities date from the 1970s and 1980s, and with redevelopment delayed their narrow alleys, ageing buildings and abandoned houses risk becoming crime-prone. Urban regeneration and smart-city transition are being discussed as responses, but differences in urban infrastructure are also producing a divide in smart technology.