Seoul National Capital Area

The Seoul National Capital Area (SNCA) is a region located in the north-west of South Korea. It is generally referred to as Sudogwon in Korean, and contains three different administrative districts; Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi-do.

The SNCA is technically distinct from the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), as the former is a fixed entity, while the latter refers to places currently considered under the economic, industrial and cultural influence of Seoul. Since the extension of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway (Korail commuter) to Asan, Chungcheongnam-do and Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, some have classified Asan, Cheonan, Chuncheon as now within the SMA, but not within the SNCA. However, the terms SNCA, SMA and Sudogwon are largely analogous and used interchangeably.

The Seoul National Capital Area has a population of 24.5 million (as of 2007) and is ranked as the second largest metropolitan area in the world. It forms the cultural, commercial, financial, industrial, and residential center of South Korea. The largest city is Seoul, with a population of approximately 10.2 million people, followed by Incheon, with 2.6 million.

Read more about Seoul National Capital Area:  Geography and Climate, History, Demographics, Government, Subdivisions, Transportation, Gallery

Famous quotes containing the words national, capital and/or area:

    Reporters for tabloid newspapers beat a path to the park entrance each summer when the national convention of nudists is held, but the cult’s requirement that visitors disrobe is an obstacle to complete coverage of nudist news. Local residents interested in the nudist movement but as yet unwilling to affiliate make observations from rowboats in Great Egg Harbor River.
    —For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    There was a sound of revelry by night,
    And Belgium’s capital had gathered then
    Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
    The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men;
    A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
    Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
    Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
    And all went merry as a marriage-bell;
    But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,—if only that the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)