A ''gun'' () is an administrative unit in both North Korea and South Korea similar to the unit of
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
.
In South Korea, a ''gun'' has a population of less than 150,000 (more than that would make it a city or ''si''), is less densely populated than a ''gu'', and is more rural in character than either of the other 2 divisions. ''Gun'' are comparable to British
non-metropolitan districts
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non ...
. Counties are divided into towns (''eup'') and districts (''myeon'').
See also
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Administrative divisions of South Korea
South Korea is made up of 22 first-tier administrative divisions: 6 List of special cities of South Korea#Position in hierarchy and types, metropolitan cities (''gwangyeoksi'' ), 1 List of special cities of South Korea, special city (''teukbyeo ...
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List of counties in South Korea
List of all counties in South Korea: There are 82 counties in South Korea since Cheongwon County was dissolved on July 1, 2014 and consolidated by Cheongju.
Dissolved counties
;1946
* Cheongju County
* Chuncheon County
* Yeongpyeong Count ...
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History of Korea
The Lower Paleolithic era on the Korean Peninsula and in Manchuria began roughly half a million years ago.
Christopher J. Norton, "The Current State of Korean Paleoanthropology", (2000), ''Journal of Human Evolution'', 38: 803–825.
The earl ...
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Provinces of Korea
Korea has had administrative districts that can be considered provinces since the 7th century. These divisions were initially called ''ju'' () in Unified Silla and Later Baekje, and there were nine in total. After Goryeo conquered these states in t ...
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Commandery (China)
A commandery ( zh, s=郡, p=jùn) was a historical administrative division of China that was in use from the Eastern Zhou (c. 7th century BCE) until the early Tang dynasty (c. 7th century CE). Several neighboring countrie ...
References
Subdivisions of Korea
{{SouthKorea-geo-stub