Since the establishment of the Korean government, the first local autonomy law was established and promulgated on July 4th 1949 as the law No. 32. In April 1952, the election for Yeup and Myeon councilors was taken place and then the local councils were organized. However, the local autonomy was suspended in accordance with the decree No. 4 by the military revolution committee on May 16th 1961 . As the provisional procedure act on the local autonomy was established on Sep. 1st 1961 , the previous local autonomy law actually lost its effectiveness. Thus, the national policy was converted to a nation-oriented local autonomy system.

As the local autonomy law with the preamble revised on April 6th 1988 as the law No. 400 was promulgated, the movement for local autonomy was activated. Then, in accordance with the revised law on Dec. 31st 1990 as law No. 4310, the election for the fundamental local councilors was taken place on March 26th 1991 . Finally, the first local councils were organized on April 15th 1991.