NongHyup said 500 cooperative heads and farmers held a joint declaration event at the Assembly that morning under the banner of defending NongHyup’s independence. Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, after consultations with the ruling party, announced a reform plan centered on stronger internal controls and introducing direct elections by members for the federation’s chair.
Participants urged lawmakers to: immediately halt what they called government-led oversight that infringes on NongHyup’s autonomy; remove provisions they said would weaken legal stability; preserve the federation’s authority to guide and supervise subsidiaries to protect its cooperative identity; withdraw a plan to create a new, inefficient audit body; and stop attempts to change the member direct-election system for the chair.
The emergency committee defending NongHyup’s autonomy said the government’s stance had not changed since a farmers’ rally on April 21. It argued the government is pressing ahead without sufficient discussion on revisions expected to spark sharp debate, including changes to the chair’s election method and the creation of a NongHyup audit committee.
The committee also criticized the limits of regional briefings. It said sessions held April 22 in Daegu and April 24 in Cheongju and Suwon included cooperative heads and farm groups but ended without adequately reflecting views from the field, leaving concerns in farming communities unresolved.
Major farm organizations nationwide joined the event and issued a solidarity statement, warning that excessive regulation and control of NongHyup could lead to cuts in farmer support programs and higher management burdens for farm households. They said they would respond together to the end because the issue is directly tied to farmers’ livelihoods.
Park Kyung-sik, a co-chair of the emergency committee, said farmers again gathered in front of the Assembly after setting aside their work because they believe losing NongHyup’s autonomy would quickly become a crisis for agriculture. “This revision of the NongHyup Act is not reform but intervention,” he said, calling for institutional improvements through sufficient discussion and public debate rather than “speed-driven legislation.”
Park said the rally showed the determination of people in the field to defend NongHyup’s autonomy and asked the Assembly to reflect views in a balanced way from farmers, NongHyup members and farm groups.
The committee said it plans to deliver the joint declaration read at the event to the National Assembly.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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