Public Procurement Service to Promote Nationalization of Recovered Areas Including Gangwon Punchbowl Village

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Public Procurement Service is promoting the nationalization of recovered areas such as Punchbowl Village in Gangwon Province.

According to the Public Procurement Service on the 4th, Punchbowl Village is a highland basin (400m~500m above sea level) located in Haean-myeon, 22 km northeast of Yanggu-gun, and the nationalization target includes about 3,400 parcels in the Haean-myeon area.

The nationalization of the Punchbowl Village area is a measure in accordance with the amendment to the "Special Measures Act on the Restoration Registration and Preservation Registration of Owner-Unrestored Land in Recovered Areas" (effective August 5, hereinafter referred to as the Special Act).

Haean-myeon, Yanggu-gun, has been a recovered area since the Korean War (6.25), and the government conducted policy relocations there in 1956 and 1972, distributing land to the relocated residents and granting cultivation rights around that time.

Subsequently, the government privatized or nationalized some parts of the area through the enactment of the Special Act in 1983, but some parts have remained ownerless land to this day, causing problems.

Local residents have long demanded solutions to the reverse discrimination in lease payments between national land and ownerless land cultivators, the illegal sale of cultivation rights on ownerless real estate, and recognition of property rights on cultivated land.

In response, the government formed an inter-agency task force (TF) in 2018, including the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Public Procurement Service, to amend the Special Act and establish grounds for promoting the nationalization of the Punchbowl Village area.

The nationalized land will be sold or leased to local residents by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Based on this, local residents are expected to resolve long-standing issues and secure stable income.

A Public Procurement Service official said, "Taking advantage of the amendment to the Special Act, the Public Procurement Service will accelerate the nationalization process of ownerless real estate in recovered areas together with the inter-agency TF. The scale of ownerless real estate identified so far in recovered areas is about 20,000 parcels, and nationalization is expected to be promoted over the next four years."

Meanwhile, recovered areas refer to the recovery districts north of the 38th parallel north (Yeoncheon, Yangyang, Goseong, Inje, Yanggu, Hwacheon, Cheorwon) and areas north of the 38th parallel in Gyeonggi Province including Jangdan-myeon, Gunnae-myeon, Jinseo-myeon, Jindong-myeon of Paju-gun, as well as Pocheon-gun and Gapyeong-gun.

The amendment to the Special Act allows owner-unrestored land in recovered areas to be acquired as national property under the "National Property Act," and the state can immediately sell or lease such land acquired as national property through private contracts.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.