Problems With the Move
Yet, the plan - one of President Roh Moo Hyun's key election pledges - has run into a wall of opposition.
A recent poll found that 52.7 percent of South Koreans did not favor the move. If only Seoul residents are counted, then nearly 70 percent are dead set against the plan. Many fear the plan would cause property prices to collapse.
A group of 169 opponents to the relocation of South Korea's administrative capital filed a petition on 12th July with the Constitutional Court in a bid to halt the controversial project. The move comes as the government is speeding up the implementation of the plan to relocate the capital, which it says is the only way to solve the chronic centralization of the country. The group, joined by 50 Seoul City councilors and a number of university professors, claimed that the relocation project lacks national consensus, thus, ④infringes on the people's basic rights.
True, Seoul has long been likened to a vortex relentlessly sucking resources to the center. Greater Seoul, including Gyeonggi province and Inchon port, is home to 48% of South Korea's 48 million people. But as this sprawl spreads, one fear is that Chung- cheong is too close and would merely become the southern tip of a vast lozenge-shaped megalopolis.
At least two questions arise. One is how shifting the capital ⑤meshes with other policies. The slogan of making Korea East Asia's business hub is hard to pin down, but its major manifestation so far - New Songdo City, a planned $190 billion regeneration project near Inchon - involves heading west, not south.
Second, can South Korea really afford this? Surging growth and fiscal discipline have left public finances healthy - for now. But many calls on the exchequer loom: $103 billion to compensate farmers for market opening; $21 billion extra on defense in the next decade, to ⑥make up for the US force drawdown; a pension system that will go bust without more infusions; and above all, the trillion-dollar question of eventual Korean reunification.
But anyway, it is still too early to say whether President Roh's plan will be successful.
迁都的困境
然而，这一计划（卢武铉总统在大选时的重要承诺之一）却遇到了阻力。
最新的民意测验显示，有52.7%的韩国人是不支持这一举措的。如果再把汉城居民计算进去的话，那么将有近70%的人是坚决反对这一计划的。许多人担心这一计划会造成地产价格的暴跌。
7月12日，169名反对迁移韩国行政首都的人向宪法法院提交了请愿申请，以求暂停这项备受争议的计划。与此同时，政府却在加速执行迁都计划，政府宣称，这是解决该国长期发展集中化的唯一方法。这些反对人士包括50名汉城市议员和众多大学教授，他们声称，迁都计划缺少全国人民的认可，因而侵犯了人民的基本权利。
长期以来，汉城确实是被当作一个漩涡，无情地侵蚀着众多资源。包括京畿道和仁川港在内的大汉城区容纳了韩国4800万人口当中的48%。但是，当这种不规范的扩展在继续的时候，人们就不禁担忧起来，因为忠清道距离太近了，也许只是会变成这个巨大的菱形超级都市的南部一角。
这样最起码会出现两个问题。其一就是，如何使迁都和其它政策相配合。把韩国建设成东亚商业中心的口号很难让人明确其意，但政府目前的重要举措（耗资1900亿美元，在仁川附近修建松岛新都市的复兴计划）却是要往西发展，而不是向南。
其二，韩国真的能承受迁都吗？快速增长和财政纪律使公共财政保持着健康的状态——起码是现在。但是对于财政部的众多要求却隐约显现出来:1030亿美元用于开放市场后对农民的赔偿；未来10年内还需要210亿美元的额外资金用来弥补美军撤兵造成的问题；如果没有更多的资金投入，养老体系就会崩溃；而最重要的是，韩朝的最终统一是一个需要花费上万亿美元的问题。
但无论如何，对卢总统计划成功与否下断言还为时尚早。
petition /pi`tiH9n/ n.请愿；情愿书
chronic /`kr4nik/ adj.长期的
consensus /k9n`sens9s/ n.一致同意
vortex /`v5teks/ n.漩涡；旋风
lozenge /`l4zin_/ n.菱形
megalopolis /,meG9`l4p9lis/ n.巨大都市；人口稠密地带
manifestation /,m2nifes`teiH9n/ n.显示；表现
compensate /`k4mp9nseit/ v.偿还；补偿
infusion /in`fj6E9n/ n.注入
④ infringe on侵害
⑤ mesh with 相合；配合
⑥ make up for 补偿
