When I was starting out as a young journalist in the mid-1990s, a quiet anxiety rippled through the newsroom of the Korean-language economic daily where I worked. The government had expanded the Gwacheon Government Complex, and senior reporters routinely complained about having to travel "all the way" to a city nestled just south of Seoul. To them, Gwacheon felt like a daunting far frontier. Some openly pondered whether they would eventually be forced to pack up their lives and move there just to keep up with the daily beat. That dread was understandable given Gwacheon's history. When Phase 1 of the complex opened in December 1982, the powerhouse economic ministries — most notably the Economic Planning Board (EPB) and the Ministry of Finance — were among the first primary tenants to pack up from downtown Seoul and relocate. Rather than just a newsroom beat, Gwacheon served as Korea’s first major postwar experiment in administrative decentralization. By the 1990s, the Gwacheon experiment had reached its operational peak. The completion of a direct subway line connecting the site to