[Anchor]

As farmers' discontent over the complete farmland inspection continues, the government has unveiled follow-up measures. While stating that farmlands will not be disposed of unless bought for speculative purposes and that consignment to the Farmland Bank will be optional, criticism is mounting that this is yet another belated response.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the details.

[Reporter]

When the government announced in July that basic findings from the complete farmland inspection showed suspected Farmland Act violations in one out of every four inspected sites, farmers' anger erupted.

[Lee Kwan-ho / Farmer in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province: (Because the landowners are elderly) they couldn't farm, so we've been farming it instead. I don't think it's right to impose compulsory fines or force us to sell it.]

The government, the ruling party, and even the president stepped in to defuse the situation, explaining that the measure was aimed at rooting out clear speculation, and announced last month that they would push for a special measure to defer disposal for habitual violations.

However, as farmers' discontent persisted, the government came forward with another set of measures, drawing a hard line that farmlands will "not be disposed of" if they are not for speculative purposes.

[Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: People might misunderstand and think that disposal will just be postponed for a certain period and then enforced later, so we are making that clear. No farmlands will be disposed of as a result of this inspection.]

The ministry outlined three major types of speculation, such as acquiring farmland using false farming plans and leaving it abandoned without authorization, while announcing that five types of cases—including inherited farmland and habitual renting by elderly farmers, which have sparked controversy—will be excluded from disposal.

The government also took a step back from its previous policy of deferring disposal on the condition of entrusting the land to the Farmland Bank.

[Song Mi-ryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Consigning to the Farmland Bank is not a mandatory requirement to avoid disposal. We will not demand Farmland Bank consignment from those who simply wish to maintain their current status.]

The government plans to enact a special measure within this year and even revise the Farmland Act in the first half of next year.

Yet, as points were raised even before the complete inspection that measures addressing customary rural practices were necessary, criticism that this is a belated response seems difficult to avoid.

[Shin Chang-sik / Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker (Day before yesterday, parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs): Four months ago, the National Assembly Research Service pointed out that "measures like this must be prepared before conducting a complete farmland inspection." Why didn't you prepare them?]

Meanwhile, the government announced that it has temporarily suspended farmland photography using Chinese-made drones, which had raised security concerns.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Lee Jae-young | Video by Yu Mi-ra | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung