Seoul officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 12 million, it is one of the largest cities in the world The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the Incheon metropolis and most of Gyeonggi province, has 24.5 million inhabitants, and is the world's second largest metropolitan area. Almost half of South Korea's population live in the Seoul National Capital Area, and nearly a quarter in Seoul itself, making it the country's foremost economic, political, and cultural center.

Seoul is located on the Han River in the center of the Korean Peninsula, and was settled in 18 B.C. when Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, established its capital in what is now south-east Seoul. The city then became the capital of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire.

Seoul is considered to be a global city. It is one of the world's top ten financial and commercial centers, home to large conglomerates such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia. In 2008, Seoul was named the world's sixth most economically powerful city by Forbes.com Seoul has a technologically advanced infrastructure. Its Digital Media City has been a test-bed for various IT and multimedia applications. Seoul was the first city to feature DMB, a digital mobile TV technology and WiBro, a wireless high-speed mobile internet service. It has a fast, high-penetration 100Mbps fibre-optic broadband network, which is being upgraded to 1Gbps by 2012. Seoul Station houses the 350 km/h KTX bullet train and the Seoul Subway is the third largest in the world, with over 2 billion passengers every year. Seoul is connected via AREX to Incheon International Airport.