History of Daegu

ng military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee, when it and the surrounding area served as his political base. Conservative political movements remain powerful in Daegu today. Daegu is a political base for Korea's ruling Grand National Party.

In the 1980s, Daegu separated from Gyeongsangbuk-do and became a separately administered provincial-level Directly Governed City (Jikhalsi), and was re designated as a Metropolitan City (Gwangyeoksi) in 1995. Today, Daegu is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Korea with respect to both population and commerce.

There are two local governments in the city, the Daegu Metropolitan Government in Jung-gu and Gyeongbuk Provincial Government in Buk-gu. The provincial government will be relocated to Andong in its proper province, Gyeongbuk. The mayor and heads of city's eight districts are directly elected by the citizens every four years. The city council has twenty nine members which consist of twenty six from the same number of electoral districts and three proportional representations. They are also directly elected every four years. Most of them are the members of the Saenuri Party,