Ri (administrative division)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ri (리, 里) is an administrative unit in both North Korea and South Korea. In South Korea, there are two kinds: legal ri (법정리) and administrative ri (행정리). A legal ri can be divided into multiple administrative ri, or several legal ri can be managed under one administrative ri. Legal ri are used for land-lot numbers and were a key part of addresses before road-name addressing; they are relatively fixed. Administrative ri can be adjusted to fit local administration as population changes. Administrative ri are often named by adding a number to the legal ri name, but the Local Autonomy Act allows a completely different name. The divisions aim to reflect settlements, but in uninhabited areas the boundaries may not be precisely defined. In rural areas the distinction between legal and administrative ri is similar to the urban distinction between legal and administrative dong; however, ri are the lowest administrative level, corresponding to an urban tong. The representative of residents in an administrative ri is called the ijang (이장).