As for the local government structure, Korea has a two-tier system. The upper or regional level consists of provinces(Do) and metropolitan cities(metropolitan Si). The lower or basic local level is composed of municipalities, such as municipal cities(Si), rural districts(Gun, rural county) and autonomous urban districts(Gu, located inside metropolitan cities).
And all municipalities in Korea have administrative sub-levels, Eup and Myeon in rural areas and Dong in urban areas. Local government in Korea employs over 338,000 staff and spends 100 trillion Won (roughly equivalent to 100 billion US dollars) a year, which accounts for around 55 per cent of public spending.
Of this, only a quarter is funded by local tax. Local governments finance themselves by revenues from locally raised taxes(e.g. property-based taxes) and non-tax revenue and the intergovernmental fiscal trarsfers(grants, subsidies, etc.).
In addition, local governments rely on local borrowings for capital investment. There are over 3,600 elected council members(738 of upper-level and 2,888 of lower-level), 230 mayors and 16 Metropolitan and provincial executive presidents serving on 246 regional and local self-governments, having in average more than 200,000 inhabitants.
