Oh Se-hoon, the Mayor of Seoul, criticized the Lee Jae-myung administration's land use investigation on September 27, stating, "Please do not look for 'targets to crack down on' among the citizens anymore."
In a post on Facebook, Mayor Oh argued that the government is investigating farmland based on actual residence and cultivation, claiming, "The government is judging the complex lives of citizens with a single standard and suspecting those who deviate from the principles as potential speculators."
The key issue is whether all uncultivated land can be judged by the same criteria.
For instance, there are cases where individuals inherit ancestral farmland of over 2,000 pyeong but live in the city and cannot cultivate it. Due to its status as ancestral land, selling it is difficult, and the landowner finds it hard to farm directly. Additionally, it is not easy to entrust the small plot to someone else for cultivation, leading to prolonged fallow periods. There are concerns that the investigation must differentiate between these circumstances and cases where land is purchased for speculative purposes.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs reported at the end of July that, out of 10.13 million parcels surveyed, 2.84 million, or 27%, were classified as suspected violations of farmland laws. Cases where farmland boundaries are blurred in aerial photographs or have transformed into forested areas are also included as suspected instances of unauthorized fallow land.
However, this figure does not indicate the scale of illegal or speculative farmland after on-site investigations are completed. The government has stated its intention to distinguish between violations for speculative purposes and the unavoidable circumstances in rural areas. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to consider the circumstances of elderly farmers who leave land fallow and provide alternative measures, such as guidance.
Nonetheless, Mayor Oh's criticism raises the question of whether such distinctions can be made on-site. While the duration of fallow land can be verified through administrative records, the reasons for not being able to sell or cultivate the land are difficult to determine with just a single document. If the government intends to enforce regulations against speculation, it must clearly present how well-meaning landowners can explain their circumstances and what alternatives they can choose.
Mayor Oh stated, "Citizens who own homes and those who own land are not the adversaries the president should be fighting against. Do not fight against the citizens; fight for the citizens."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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