List of provincial-level cities of South Korea

Province-level cities have equal status to provinces in the South Korean administrative scheme, and are among the highest-ranked administrative divisions of South Korea. There are three kinds of first-level city in South Korea. • Seoul was designated a "special free city" (teukbyeol jayusi; ; ) separate from Gyeonggi Province on August 15, 1946; it became a "special metropolitan city" on August 15, 1949. • Metropolitan cities were called "direct control (meaning directly-administered) city" (jikhalsi; ; ) before 1995. ==Administration==

In South Korean special metropolitan city and metropolitan cities, the mayor is the highest-ranking official in charge. The mayor is directly elected by the people registered in the city for a duration of four years (e.g., the mayor of Seoul). Metropolitan functions such as water supply and public transport are integrated into the sole prefecture other than scattered to each municipality. ==List of provincial-level cities==

Notes: There are no Hanja for "Seoul"; in Chinese, it is written as / (), a transcription based on the pronunciation of "Seoul". As a suffix, the character Gyeong () is used, which means "capital". ==See also==