[Joo Young-jin's News Briefing]
When quoting this interview, please explicitly credit the program name SBS 'Joo Young-jin's News Briefing.' SBS holds the copyright.
■ Broadcast: SBS <Joo Young-jin's News Briefing> Mon–Fri (14:00–15:20)
■ Host: Anchor Joo Young-jin
■ Guest: Song Mi-ryung, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
--------------------------------------------
● Interview with Song Mi-ryung, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
"Supplying agricultural and livestock products for Chuseok at 1.6 times the normal level"
"Offering domestic agricultural and livestock products at up to 40% discount"
"30% Onnuri gift certificate refund when purchasing at 300 traditional markets"
"Ministry's actual budget exceeds 25 trillion won... record high"
"Food security is a national strategic industry... balanced development possible only when rural areas are livable"
"Spending venues in rural basic income pilot areas increased by over 16%... business startups revitalized"
"First full-scale farmland inspection aims to build a database and improve the system"
"Farmland inspection will strictly distinguish between illegal speculation and law-abiding farmers"
---
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Song Mi-ryung, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, is here with us. Welcome.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Hello.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: It has been quite difficult to arrange an interview. We scheduled it a couple of times, but sudden events with the president came up, among other things.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: National Assembly schedules came up as well.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: What is the most pressing issue at the Ministry of Agriculture these days, the one you are paying the most attention to?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Right now it is Chuseok, as the holiday is next week.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: That is right.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: So we are implementing measures to stabilize people's livelihoods for Chuseok, and we are paying close attention and putting in great care.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Indeed, whenever livelihood stabilization measures are announced around Chuseok, we reporters write many news stories.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is true.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Specifically, what aspects of our viewers' daily lives are you focusing on ahead of Chuseok?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: First of all, there are key holiday items, right? There are 13 key holiday items, and since people will use a lot of them during the holiday, we are paying close attention to supply volumes so that there are no disruptions. We will supply them at about 1.6 times the normal level. To do that, while agricultural products are currently stable, we are taking actions like supplying contract-grown volumes in a timely manner. Slaughterhouses for livestock products normally do not operate on weekends. However, during the holiday period, they operate on weekends as well to significantly increase supply volumes. And from the public's perspective, prices are also considered very important.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Right.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: At large marts and small-to-medium marts, the government provides 20% and distribution companies provide 20%, offering domestic agricultural and livestock products to the public at discounts of up to 40%. This applies not only to the 13 key holiday items, but to all domestic agricultural and livestock products. What is particularly different from last year is that there used to be a per-person discount limit. But this time, it is unlimited until September 30, continuing even after Chuseok. In addition, for traditional markets, while there were 200 locations last year, this year if you purchase items at 300 traditional markets, 30% is refunded on-site with Onnuri gift certificates. Before that, we also sold agricultural discount gift certificates at a 20% discount. So we are making great efforts to promote domestic agricultural and livestock product consumption so that the public can purchase and consume them abundantly in terms of quantity and without worry in terms of price. The discount support amount this time is 149 billion won from our ministry alone.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: The discount amount.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: The amount supporting the discounts.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: So that benefit goes to the buyers, our general viewers?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is correct. But at the same time, our producers might be worried. So we are also preparing Chuseok measures for producers. For our farmers who have suffered damage from natural disasters or livestock diseases, we plan to disburse all compensation or disaster recovery funds before the holiday. Also, the harvest season is coming soon. Ahead of the rice harvest, we are taking advance measures so that RPCs (Rice Processing Complexes) can pay for rice in advance. Furthermore, for what is called "public stockpiling," the advance payment given when purchasing rice was 40,000 won until last year, but this year it is being raised to 60,000 won. Besides that, in terms of operating costs, we have extended the tax-free oil price-linked subsidy until December. We are paying attention across multiple aspects.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Minister, once you start speaking, your words flow without hesitation. In the beginning, President Lee Jae-myung—among the ministers appointed during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which is quite rare—kept working with you, Minister Song, and I recall reporters writing stories about how you answered questions without hesitation whenever asked about areas of interest.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: I am working hard. Since the president knows the field very well, I try to communicate a lot with the field with the mindset that I need to understand our sector even more deeply.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Around Chuseok, the Ministry of Agriculture must be in practically an emergency situation.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is right. At production sites, in distribution, and at consumer contact points, we are currently working across all fronts.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: In any case, for this Chuseok, I hope many people can visit markets and marts without worrying about things being too expensive, and hold their ancestral rites.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Yes. I hope everyone has a bountiful and enjoyable Chuseok.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: I really hope so. These days, many people seem to say they somehow do not feel at ease.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: I hope they can feel a bit more at ease.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: It seems the Minister of Agriculture needs to do a good job.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: I will work even harder.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Understood. Soon, with the regular session of the National Assembly, the budget bill will be passed, and before that, you will also face the comprehensive scrutiny of the parliamentary audit. I heard that in this year's budget proposal, the Ministry of Agriculture's budget was increased to a record scale. Is that correct?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is correct. The amount currently compiled as the government proposal is 22.2215 trillion won.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: You know the exact number.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: This is an increase of 10.4%. In terms of growth rate and increase amount, it is the largest since 2000. Some people might say that because the national budget growth rate is 12.8%, our 10.4% is a bit small. But in fact, we had debts in our ministry's funds. This time, we paid off more than 3 trillion won of that debt. Taking that into account, our budget amount exceeds 25 trillion won. It is about 25.3081 trillion won.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: If you effectively combine the paid-off debt.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: So with that, it is an increase of 25.7%, which can truly be called a historic budget formulation.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: A question that comes to mind is, why was it suddenly increased to a record scale? What are the pressing issues? Such questions arise.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: There is climate change.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Climate change.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: There are significant changes in conditions surrounding our agriculture and rural areas, such as the spread of AI and the risk of regional extinction. We must respond swiftly to these issues, and you can understand this as our government paying that much attention to our agriculture and rural sectors. Because food security is a national strategic industry, this can be understood as our government focusing on this area.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Listening to you, Minister, we often tend to think of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs as focusing only on agricultural products. But caring for the lives of those who produce these crops—farmers, fishers, livestock workers—is also the ministry's job.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is right. It is the most important thing. Only when producers can make a decent living can they take responsibility for our food security. In fact, that part had been somewhat neglected, and our government placed great emphasis on stabilizing the income and business operations of our farmers in this budget. Another aspect is rural areas as living spaces. People often talk about regional extinction.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: That is right.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: In the end, only by transforming rural areas into livable spaces can we achieve balanced development, so that is also the job of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. I hope you understand this as a budget for the development of our agriculture and rural communities.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: In connection with that, starting this year, is it? The pilot project for rural basic income.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: The basic income pilot project.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: This is currently a pilot project. At what scale did it start, and if its effectiveness is proven through the pilot project, to what extent do you plan to expand it?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Currently, we had planned to run the pilot project until next year. First, starting in January this year, we designated 10 regions as pilot project areas.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Ten regions.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: And starting in August, we added seven more regions. So currently, 17 regions are pilot project areas.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: It has been expanded.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is correct. The budget formulation for next year is set to expand it up to 35 regions. The background behind expanding to 35 regions next year is that from running the pilot project this year, looking at those 10 regions from January to August, the population increased by an average of 5%. Among them, the youth population growth rate was 6.1%.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Really?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: And what are called merchant stores—places of consumption where money can be spent—increased by more than 16%. What I find very important is that new business startups occurred. I find it very encouraging that 737 new startups were launched. Young people moved in at a higher rate than general population growth, and they started businesses, especially establishing new ventures in township (myeon) areas where there were previously no places to spend money. Even more importantly, as local residents gained a bit of financial breathing room and saw potential, various activities began taking place nationwide—such as creating residents' cooperatives, a form of social solidarity economic organization, to produce what our communities need on our own—which is extremely encouraging.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Then what is the core content of the rural basic income project? How does it work?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Targeting county (gun) areas at risk of population extinction, 150,000 won per person per month is paid in local currency to county residents. This local currency can only be spent within the region, and rather than allowing it to be spent across both towns (eup) and townships (myeon) within the region, if you live in a myeon, you must spend it within that myeon. Spending it in eup areas is restricted. But wasn't the problem that in most rural myeon areas, there was nowhere to spend money?
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Right.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Because living was inconvenient, residents were leaving. But when we implemented this, people saw that there was now a pool of consumer spending, which led to startups, and residents started taking action to supply the goods and services they need within that scope. In other words, it provides a motive for revitalizing local communities.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: So it is basic income aimed at revitalizing the economies of areas facing population extinction.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That is right. It means reducing the risk of extinction and invigorating new community activities among residents.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Rural basic income is currently being implemented as a pilot project, right?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Yes, that is correct.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: And another fund the president mentioned recently: the Rural Mutual Cooperation Fund.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: The Mutual Cooperation Fund.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: What is this about?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: During the Korea-China FTA, our agricultural sector suffered enormous damage. Because of this damage, the ruling party, the government, and businesses made a sort of promise: let us raise 1 trillion won over 10 years for the Mutual Cooperation Fund and spend it on our agricultural and rural sectors that suffered losses. The target period for that 1 trillion won promise was January 2027. However, tallying it up now, only about 320 billion won has actually been raised. Because it relied on voluntary corporate contributions, this happened. When we delivered our second-half policy briefing in July, our president stated that this is a matter of trust in the government and an unfulfilled promise to the agricultural community. Therefore, the government decided to make contributions. Out of the remaining 700 billion won, the government decided to contribute around 200 billion won starting next year. This demonstrates a government that keeps its promises.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: The Rural Mutual Cooperation Fund.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: The Mutual Cooperation Fund.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Understood. And another topic I believe I saw in news reports: is it the full-scale farmland inspection? Inspecting all farmland. Why is this being done, at what scale, and is it really inspecting the entirety of it?
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: All of it. You can understand it as a fact-finding survey, although the phrase "full-scale inspection" sounds quite intense.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Recently, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety also seems to be conducting a census.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Yes. But in fact, when it comes to farmland inspection, not once has a survey been conducted since the Farmland Act was introduced in 1996. As a result, the database is not comprehensive, and there has been much criticism that the farmland system is out of touch with reality. That is why we initiated the inspection to build a database and take this as an opportunity to improve a system detached from reality. However, because there are concerns on the ground, regardless of our intentions, these worries have been spreading in a very negative manner, which is why I am addressing this frequently. We will strictly distinguish between illegal speculation and the unavoidable, common legal infractions committed by our law-abiding farmers due to reasons such as old age or illness.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Right. Someone owned farmland, but suddenly...
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Because they fell ill.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Due to old age or poor health, they cannot farm, and then the government questions whether it is farmland or not...
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: That should not happen. So I can state first of all that such things will not occur. Even now under the Farmland Act, although many people talk about the principle of land belonging to the tiller, there are institutional guarantees in various ways. For instance, if you inevitably cannot farm due to illness, you can lease it out. You can also lease out inherited farmland. Furthermore, if you have farmed for more than five years and are over 60 years old, you can also lease it out. Also, farmland owned for more than three years can be leased to the Farmland Bank. There are many cases. And I want to emphasize that even if a violation is confirmed through this inspection, it will not lead immediately to an order of disposal.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: That is probably what people are most worried about.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: People say things like, if you do not dispose of it, a 25% tax will be levied. They think the government is trying to take away all our land. That is completely untrue. For cases where land was acquired for speculative purposes...
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: People might also wonder, "What are they going to do after taking it away?"
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: While we will take strict action against such serious violations, please understand that for unavoidable circumstances that frequently occur in rural communities, we will rectify matters to help normalize them while giving full consideration to on-site conditions. In cases where farmland inevitably must be disposed of, we intend to further vitalize the Farmland Bank's function of purchasing and leasing. I would also like to mention that the law has now been amended so that, as long as there are no restrictions on its function as farmland or the exercise of rights, the Farmland Bank will carry out mandatory purchases within budget limits.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Understood.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: You do not need to worry.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: I see. I hope many people feel reassured listening to the minister's explanation, and as you said, I hope this full-scale inspection will be one that puts farmers at ease.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: We will make sure of that.
▷ Joo Young-jin / Anchor: Thank you for speaking with us today.
▶ Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Thank you.
※ For more details, please check the video.
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.