The southeastern metropolitan city of Daegu, 240 kilometers from Seoul, and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province agreed Monday to consolidate their governments by July 2026 to create a new special city with a status equivalent to that of Seoul. The agreement was reached in a meeting of Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, North Gyeongsang Gov. Lee Cheol-woo, Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and Woo Dong-gi, chairman of the Presidential Committee for Decentralization and Balanced Development. The agreement stipulates that the new local government to be established by integrating Daegu and North Gyeongsang, also called Gyeongbuk in Korean, will be called "Daegu-Gyeongbuk Special City" and the legal status of the special city will be equivalent to that of Seoul in consideration of the purpose of the integration. It also calls for utilizing the current city office buildings of Daegu, Andong and Pohang for the administrative offices of the new special city. The Daegu-Gyeongbuk Special City will be granted the functions of establishing, supervising, coordinating, and executing comprehensive plans for economic and industrial development, balanced development and metropolitan administration. The decision to merge Daegu and North Gyeongsang came after the two local self-governments formulated the consolidation plan in May and produced a road map in June. The negotiations faltered in August, but proceeded again after the interior ministry and the presidential decentralization committee intervened and presented a mediation proposal. Source: Yonhap News Agency