South Korea's Sejong city began as a 2002 campaign promise by then President Roh Moo-hyun, who pledged to relocate the capital and make the country less Seoul-centric. An intervention by the constitutional court and political infighting ensured it did not happen, though in 2014 Sejong did officially come into existence, housing half the country's state ministries. CGTN's Jack Barton took a look at the success and failures of the new administrative hub, which remains controversial in South Korea.

Most cities grow up over time around a deep-water port, major trade hub or protective terrain but not the South Korean city of Sejong. Like Australia's capital Canberra, Sejong is a pre-planned administrative capital built to house the government. At least that was the plan until a court ruled in 2004 that shifting the entire government from Seoul would be unconstitutional.

PROFESSOR YOOK DONG-IL CHUNGNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY "It was decided that only part of the central administration would move to Sejong city and that the National Assembly and Presidential Blue House would remain in Seoul."

Thirty-six government ministries now call this city home. Many are interlinked, forming the world's largest rooftop garden. It's great insulation for buildings that also utilize renewable energy.

HEO SEUNG-NYEONG GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION AND SECURITY AGENCY "We're concerned about global warming so we are trying using solar panels and earth heating to provide the best energy efficiency and environmental city impact plan, this was the architect's master plan."

Environmentally Sejong has been a success, but it was built to make the government lean not green.

PROFESSOR YOOK DONG-IL CHUNGNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY "There is a wasteful inefficiency that is emerging because congress is in Seoul while the Prime Minister's office is in Sejong. When there is a parliamentary inspection and central government meeting then in this case there appears a lot of inefficiency and waste. So politicians spend a lot of time on the road."

JACK BARTON SEJONG "There is a high speed rail link that can whisk commuters away to Seoul in less than 40 minutes, but that is almost half an hour away by taxi, and good luck finding one of those."

The population has grown, but not in the way it was hoped.

PROFESSOR YOOK DONG-IL CHUNGNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY "Sejong city stared in July 2012. There were 100,000 people, now there are 280,000, so the population has increased, they have met their target for population growth but the Seoul metropolitan population is not going down while the population in the surrounding areas is being sucked up like through a straw."

There are plenty of problems to overcome though it's still early days. Whether the government can work more effectively split in two remains to be seen, though the hope of Seoul residents relocating en masse now seems unlikely to be fulfilled. Jack Barton, CGTN, Sejong.