The headquarters of K-water is located amid a simple, quiet landscape away from downtown Daejeon. The only thing breaking the silence is the noise from cars running on Shintangjin-ro stretching from south to north. If you visit the building for the first time, you may wonder if it is really the headquarters because you will likely expect the head office of a major public corporation to be on a busy street downtown. Then, why did K-water choose to build its head office outside of the city instead of downtown Daejeon?
K-water was the first public corporation that moved out of Seoul to Daedeok-gun, Daejeon City on October 16, 1974. After the construction of the new head office building was completed, Daehan Express, a major moving company, was hired for the relocation, which was finished in a day like a military operation. Not many K-water employees were happy about the move. Since its foundation in 1967, K-water had rented Pyungjeon Building as its head office in Jung-dong, Seodaemun-gu in Seoul, and in a span of 7 years, many employees started families and built their lives in Seoul.

The relocation decision was made in the early spring of 1973. The Minister of Construction at the time convened a meeting of heads of related government agencies to discuss the relocation policy. The presidents of Korea Housing Corporation, Korea Land Development Corporation, and Korea Expressway Corporation were called in to meet with the Minister. Gyeong-mo Ahn, the president of K-water at the time, was also present at the meeting. There was only silence for a couple of minutes. They said they had difficulty getting their employees to reach a consensus. Then, the Minister asked Ahn, and what he offered as an answer was shocking. “We’ll move to Daegu,” he said. That is how K-water became the first public corporation to leave Seoul. Dong-gwan Park, who accompanied Ahn to the meeting, was baffled by what he overheard through a crack of the door.

Then-K-water president Ahn ordered Park, who was the manager of the Administration Team, to go to Daegu and find a building to rent. However, the population of Daegu exceeded one million, and there was no building that was big enough for K-water to move to in downtown Daegu. Ahn had to deal with the growing complaints from employees. The news of K-water’s relocation to Daegu spread quickly, and employees grew increasingly resentful. Some employees submitted petitions asking K-water to move to Daejeon—which is closer to Seoul—instead of Daegu if the decision to move was not to be withdrawn.

“I, too, was frustrated and disappointed but I had no choice but to go. I did not resent the decision, but I was sad because I had to leave my wife and kids behind in Shindang-dong, Seoul. Many employees left the company because they refused to move to Daejeon.”

“When we were told K-water was moving to Daegu, we were puzzled. Back in the 1970s, public transportation and road conditions were so poor that it took over 6 hours to travel from Seoul to Daegu. So we started to consider Daejeon as an alternative.”

K-water Ended up in Daejeon

Eventually, K-water chose to go to Daejeon. However, it was politically complicated for then-president Jungh-hee Park to reverse the initial decision to move K-water to Daegu where he hailed. He needed a good reason to relocate K-water to Daejeon instead of Daegu. Democratic Republican Party leader Jong-pil Kim and Yong-tae Kim, floor leader of the same party, were from Buyeo and Daejeon, respectively. In order to justify the move to Daejeon, K-water employees from these two cities gathered together and worked closely with politicians.
They even embarked on a combined operation with the city of Daejeon. K-water employees filed a petition to Daejeon Mayor Jae-hong Sim, asking him to take strategic measures to attract state-invested organizations to the city for the growth and development of Daejeon. After the petition was sent, K-water managers Hyuck-geun Park and In-seok Kim rushed to the train station early in the morning and arrived in Daejeon at 8 am in February 1973 to meet with Mayor Sim at 11 am. Park and Mayor Sim went to the Korean Army Military School together during the Korean War. K-water used all the personal connections that its employees had in order to move to Daejeon. Coincidentally, floor leader Yong-tae Kim was in Daejeon for a joint election campaign for the 9th National Assembly. The K-water special envoys met with Kim and secured Kim’s consent to K-water’s relocation to Daejeon.

“President Park initially insisted that K-water move to Daegu but was later convinced that Daejeon was also not a bad choice. Now Daejeon was almost certain to be our destination.” Soon-won Kim, former K-water employee

K-water informed the Ministry of Construction of its decision to move to Daejeon instead of Daegu and obtained final approval from the Blue House.