Assemblyman Seo Samsuk: "I Will Convey Farmers' and Fishermen's Voices Without Distortion"

Public Opinion Survey for Farmers and Fishermen at the National Audit, Conveying On-site Evaluations and Voices to the Government

Raising 3 Major Policy Agendas and 5 Key Action Tasks for the Regular National Assembly

Deriving Policy Agend

Seo Sam-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, attended the National Assembly's audit on the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held on October 18 last year, and questioned Kim Hyun-soo, the Minister of Agriculture. ⓒ Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Seo Sam-seok, a member of the National Assembly’s Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Fisheries Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea (Yeongam·Muan·Shinan), announced on the 30th that he will convey the field evaluations and voices regarding the current government's five years of agricultural policy to the government through a public opinion survey targeting farmers and fishermen during the upcoming National Assembly inspection.

Additionally, he proposed three major policy agendas and five practical tasks in preparation for the regular National Assembly session to ensure the sustainability of Korean agriculture and fisheries.

The three major policy agendas are rural revitalization through responding to the crisis of local extinction, addressing the climate crisis and improving food self-sufficiency, and legislating a cooperative governance model for mutual growth. The five practical tasks include addressing rural labor issues caused by aging and population decline, inspecting rural water management projects to prepare for natural disasters, supplementing measures to improve food self-sufficiency, improving FTA agricultural and fishery damage support, and inspecting safety issues in agriculture and fisheries such as port navigation safety systems.

The policy agendas and practical tasks were derived through four consecutive policy discussion meetings that began in August.

Since August, Assemblyman Seo has consecutively held the ‘Policy Discussion on Diagnosing Causes and Seeking Solutions for Local Extinction Crisis,’ ‘What Are the Alternatives for Food Self-Sufficiency in Crisis?,’ ‘Policy Discussion for Preparing New Vitality Strategies for Peripheral Regions of the National Territory,’ and ‘Policy Discussion on Establishing a Cooperative Governance Model for Regional Mutual Growth.’

Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok stated, “The seriousness of rural aging and population outflow, expressed as the local extinction crisis, the problem of domestic food self-sufficiency worsening due to the climate crisis and rural extinction, and the urgent national security tasks of responding to the extinction crisis in peripheral island and fishing village areas, which are important for protecting maritime territory, cannot be delayed any longer. We will do our best to concretize the alternatives proposed in the discussions and reflect them in policies through the National Assembly inspection and other means.”

He added, “Although the rural extinction crisis, which forces people to leave their hometowns due to insufficient income stabilization policies by past governments and lack of education, medical, health, and welfare infrastructure, is intensifying, the government is rather reducing the national budget share for agriculture and fisheries. In this National Assembly inspection, I will faithfully convey the voices from the field revealed in the farmers’ and fishermen’s public opinion survey on the current government’s five years of agricultural policy to urge a change in government awareness.”

Meanwhile, this public opinion survey targeting farmers and fishermen is the second one conducted in the 21st National Assembly following the one in 2020.

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