Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-ryeong: “Additional farmland investigation will focus on speculation.”

Song Mi-ryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said on the 13th, “Further investigation of farmland should focus on the type of speculation.”

Minister Song appeared on KBS1 radio's 'Blitz Current Affairs' on this day and said, "The basic investigation was completed at the end of July, and we are currently conducting an on-site investigation, and it is expected to be almost complete by October."

Minister Song reaffirmed the existing government's position that it will pursue the enactment of a special measures law in the direction of not proceeding with disposal procedures under the Farmland Act based on the results of this comprehensive investigation for general issues other than farmland speculation and serious illegal conversion.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to enact a special measure law related to farmland survey within the year and then push for a revision to the Farmland Act within the first half of next year.

Minister Song said, "As the Farmland Act is 30 years old, there are many parts that need to be corrected, and social public discussion is needed. That part will be carried out next year, so if we leave it as a violation of the law (Farmland Act) as a result of this farmland investigation, we are in fact neglecting the violation of the law." He added, "To solve this problem, we will first have a special law and allow a period of time to resolve the current violation status through special cases, and then draw up a schedule to completely revise the Farmland Act next year. “There is,” he explained.

In addition, regarding the issue of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Minister Song emphasized, "There is great fear in our agricultural community because CPTPP has a high degree of openness," and added, "We will communicate sufficiently and listen to the agricultural community's position."

He also emphasized, “We will faithfully represent the opinions of the agricultural community in the government.”