President Lee Jae-myung said the government should strengthen enforcement so that people who do not farm cannot own farmland.
Lee made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting he chaired at Cheong Wa Dae on May 6 after receiving a report from Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Song Mi-ryeong on a plan for a full survey of farmland. He said the Constitution and the Farmland Act clearly intend that those who do not actually farm should not hold farmland.
Lee instructed officials to build a system that uses artificial intelligence to analyze satellite images to identify land that is not being farmed, and to expand and make better use of rewards for reporting violations.
He said it is “almost impossible” for public officials to find idle farmland one by one. Lee added that when he was mayor of Seongnam, he checked the issue and found that, legally and institutionally, it was difficult to issue actual sale orders and that people could be exempted if they merely appeared to comply, while there were not enough investigators. “So I actually gave up,” he said, adding that this likely encouraged speculation.
He also criticized the rule that when a duty to dispose of farmland arises because it is not cultivated, the obligation disappears if the owner corrects the problem within three years. “If you do nothing for two years and farm in the third year, you’re exempt, aren’t you?” he said, calling it a system that is “there in name only.”
In a closed session, the Cabinet also deliberated and approved 38 bills for promulgation, 12 presidential decrees and one general agenda item, in addition to discussions and ministry reports.
A total of 26 items were laws tied to state policy tasks, including promulgation of partial amendments to the Act on Special Cases Concerning Confiscation and Recovery of Corrupt Property, the Special Act on Support for Victims of Jeonse Fraud and Housing Stability, and the Act on Management of Real Estate Development Projects.
Lee also ordered a review of strong steps targeting hoarding of medical products such as syringes, including immediately confiscating the stockpiled goods. He called for effective measures to encourage private reporting, including sharply raising whistleblower rewards to 30% of recovered funds, and asked officials to consider introducing an administrative fine system.
Separately, Lee praised Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, who is serving as the governmentwide control tower, saying the number of deaths by suicide has declined for five straight months since the new government took office, senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jeong said in a written briefing.
Lee also noted that the suicide prevention hotline 109 receives about 350,000 counseling calls a year but has only about 100 counselors. “Given the nation’s fiscal capacity and the Republic of Korea’s historic standing, it doesn’t make sense that calls go unanswered because there isn’t enough money or staff,” he said. He instructed officials to find ways to raise the response rate, whether by securing private support or through a supplementary budget.
Lee made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting he chaired at Cheong Wa Dae on May 6 after receiving a report from Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Song Mi-ryeong on a plan for a full survey of farmland. He said the Constitution and the Farmland Act clearly intend that those who do not actually farm should not hold farmland.
Lee instructed officials to build a system that uses artificial intelligence to analyze satellite images to identify land that is not being farmed, and to expand and make better use of rewards for reporting violations.
He said it is “almost impossible” for public officials to find idle farmland one by one. Lee added that when he was mayor of Seongnam, he checked the issue and found that, legally and institutionally, it was difficult to issue actual sale orders and that people could be exempted if they merely appeared to comply, while there were not enough investigators. “So I actually gave up,” he said, adding that this likely encouraged speculation.
He also criticized the rule that when a duty to dispose of farmland arises because it is not cultivated, the obligation disappears if the owner corrects the problem within three years. “If you do nothing for two years and farm in the third year, you’re exempt, aren’t you?” he said, calling it a system that is “there in name only.”
In a closed session, the Cabinet also deliberated and approved 38 bills for promulgation, 12 presidential decrees and one general agenda item, in addition to discussions and ministry reports.
A total of 26 items were laws tied to state policy tasks, including promulgation of partial amendments to the Act on Special Cases Concerning Confiscation and Recovery of Corrupt Property, the Special Act on Support for Victims of Jeonse Fraud and Housing Stability, and the Act on Management of Real Estate Development Projects.
Lee also ordered a review of strong steps targeting hoarding of medical products such as syringes, including immediately confiscating the stockpiled goods. He called for effective measures to encourage private reporting, including sharply raising whistleblower rewards to 30% of recovered funds, and asked officials to consider introducing an administrative fine system.
Separately, Lee praised Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, who is serving as the governmentwide control tower, saying the number of deaths by suicide has declined for five straight months since the new government took office, senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jeong said in a written briefing.
Lee also noted that the suicide prevention hotline 109 receives about 350,000 counseling calls a year but has only about 100 counselors. “Given the nation’s fiscal capacity and the Republic of Korea’s historic standing, it doesn’t make sense that calls go unanswered because there isn’t enough money or staff,” he said. He instructed officials to find ways to raise the response rate, whether by securing private support or through a supplementary budget.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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