Dong (administrative division)

A dong (Korean: 동) or neighborhood is a submunicipal level administrative unit of a city[1] and of those cities which are not divided into wards throughout Korea. The unit is often translated as neighborhood and has been used in both administrative divisions of North Korea[2] and South Korea.[3][4]

Neighborhood
Hangul
Hanja
Revised Romanizationdong
McCune–Reischauertong
Administrative neighborhood
Hangul
Hanja
Revised Romanizationhaengjeongdong
McCune–Reischauerhaengjŏngdong
Legal-status neighborhood
Hangul
Hanja
Revised Romanizationbeopjeongdong
McCune–Reischauerpŏpchŏngdong
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Administrative divisions
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Ward

In South Korea

A dong is, usually, the smallest level of urban-area division to have its own office and staff in South Korea. There are two types of dong: legal-status neighborhood (법정동) and administrative neighborhood (행정동).[5][6][7]

For land property and (old) address, legal-status neighborhood is mainly used. Unlike what the name indicates, they are not defined by any written law. Instead, most of names are came from customary law, which indicates historical names. Administrative neighborhood, however, is defined by local governments to make an office (community center). Community centers provide some administrative services such as residential/birth registration or death notification, to relief service pressure of local government. Also, electoral districts are based on administrative neighborhood.

In usual cases, an administrative neighborhood is set by population of the area to match demands for the civil services. Because legal-status neighborhood uses historical name, recently developed (populated) area can be grouped as a single legal-status neighborhood. In such places, it can be divided into several administrative neighborhoods. Sillim-dong is a typical example for this case. For the same reason, there are some inverse cases, i.e. a single administrative neighborhood holding multiple legal-status neighborhoods. Such cases contain undeveloped suburban area, or recently declining area.

The primary division of a dong is the tong (통/統), but divisions at this level and below are used rarely in daily life. Cases using tong contain school districts or military services. Some dong are subdivided into ga (가/街), which are not a separate level of government but only exist for use in addresses. Many major thoroughfares in Seoul, Suwon, and other cities are also subdivided into ga.

The widest legal-status dong is Unseo-dong in Jung District, Incheon Metropolitan City, with an area of 51.56km2 (19.91 sq mi), and Incheon International Airport occupies most of the area, and this is larger than Anyang City (58.46 km2 (22.57 sq mi)) and Gyeryong City (60.7 km2 (23.4 sq mi)).[8] The narrowest legal-status dong is Sangdeok-dong in Jung District, Daegu Metropolitan City, with an area of 2,971m2 (0.003km2).[9]

See also

Notes
  1. Korea annual, Volume 1991 (37 ed.). Yonhap News Agency. 2000. p. 126. ISBN 978-89-7433-051-4.
  2. Hunter, (1999) p.154
  3. Nelson, (2000), p.30
  4. No, (1993), p.208
  5. 동 洞 [Dong] (in Korean). Nate / Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Archived from the original on 2011-06-10. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  6. 동 洞 [Dong] (in Korean). Nate / Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2011-06-10. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  7. 행정동 行政洞 [Haengjeong-dong (trans. Administrative dong)] (in Korean). Doosan Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  8. "중구 운서동 주민센터 문열어" [Jung-gu Unseo-dong administrative welfare center opened] (in Korean). Kyeongin Ilbo. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  9. "[포토 스토리] 100걸음 걸으면 동네 끝…국내 최소 법정동 '대구 중구 상덕동'" [[Photo Story] If you walk 100 steps, the neighborhood ends... 'Sangdeok-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu', the smallest legal-status dong in South Korea] (in Korean). The Yeongnam Ilbo. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

References
  • Hunter, Helen-Louise. (1999), Kim Il-sŏng's North Korea, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0275962962
  • Nelson, Laura C. (2000) Measured excess: status, gender, and consumer nationalism in South Korea, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-11616-0
  • Yusuf, Shahid; Evenett, Simon J., Wu, Weiping. (2001) Facets of globalization: international and local dimensions of development World Bank Publications, pp. 226–227 ISBN 0-8213-4742-X
  • No, Chŏng-hyŏn (1993) Public administration and the Korean transformation: concepts, policies, and value conflicts, Kumarian Press, ISBN 1-56549-022-3
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