More talk about redoing Korea's administrative divisions.

There's a Korea Times article today on new talk about reconfiguring the country's municipalities. It brings up proposed mergers of Mokpo and Muan county, and the consolodation of Yeosu, Suncheon, and Gwangyang that made news in 2007 but which apparently fell through last year. Last fall I mentioned talk of a merger between Gangjin, Yeongam, and Jangheung counties. Also last fall we heard about a plan---one that accompanied other talk of designating each region a specialist in one field or another---that would reduce through merger the number of counties from 230 to 60 or 70. Wikipedia says these new counties would have rougly the same population.

If you look at Jeollanam-do's geneology---I love citing that nightmare of a page---you'll see that mergers, reconfigurations, and renamings are very common. I wonder if people, then, have any attachment to the particular town or county they call home, or if it stops at the village level. Or if it only exists in a larger since, identification with Jeolla, for example, or Daegu. Maybe I'm thinking too small here, but another reason to oppose all this movement is that you'd have to redo all the signs, logos, flags, and stationary.