Under Pressure from President Lee for "Normalizing NongHyup"... NongHyup Ultimately Accepts Direct Election System for Cooperative Members

Reform Plan Announced Through Statement
Direct Election System Accepted
Opposes Establishment of External Audit Committee

NongHyup Central Headquarters has decided to accept the 'direct election system for the chairman by cooperative members.' This comes just one week after President Lee Jaemyung reiterated the need for 'normalizing NongHyup' and urged reforms within the organization.

On the 21st, NongHyup announced its stance through a statement titled "A Message to Agricultural Cooperative Members and the Public," declaring, "We have decided to actively accept the direct election system for cooperative members."

Kang Hodong, Chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, is delivering a message to farmer members and the public at the federation's headquarters on the 21st. National Agricultural Cooperative Federation

On this day, Kang Hodong, Chairman of NongHyup Central Headquarters, said, "NongHyup takes seriously both the President's words that we must become a truly authentic NongHyup, leading agricultural development and improving the quality of life for farmers, as well as the demands of the times. We will actively accept the direct election system for cooperative members with an open mind and a sense of responsibility."

Previously, on the 14th, President Lee had emphasized at a presidential chief secretary meeting, "Normalizing NongHyup is more important than anything else," and called for reforms to be implemented without delay, stating, "Please accelerate institutional improvements such as the direct election system for cooperative members so that NongHyup can transform into a real cooperative that leads agricultural development and improves the quality of life for farmers."

In response, on the 20th, NongHyup convened an emergency meeting of the joint emergency response committee, attended by the committee’s co-chairs, members, and 60 executives from the NongHyup group, to discuss the reform proposals. A NongHyup official explained, "During the discussion, while the emergency committee members shared consensus on the direction of NongHyup reforms, some pointed out the need to swiftly announce our position due to the urgency of the matter, while others highlighted the importance of further internal communication. After additional discussions, we issued a statement outlining five reform measures."

First, NongHyup agreed to accept the direct election system for cooperative members, recognizing the need for a more democratic and responsible election system. This is one of the key tasks in the reform plan previously announced by the party and government. However, regarding the government's push to establish an external audit committee, NongHyup expressed its opposition in an indirect manner. Chairman Kang stated, "We are concerned that the creation of a new NongHyup audit committee could lead to overlapping regulations and increased personnel and operating costs, thereby undermining overall managerial autonomy and stability. Therefore, NongHyup will thoroughly reinforce its internal audit function and devise effective measures that meet public expectations." In effect, NongHyup has made its opposition to the establishment of an external audit committee clear.

Instead, NongHyup has pledged to intensify its efforts in autonomous innovation and responsible management. To this end, it will swiftly implement 13 internal innovation tasks recommended by the NongHyup Reform Committee—such as improving governance, strengthening internal controls, and enhancing the fairness of executive nominations—so that both agricultural cooperative members and the public can experience tangible change. Furthermore, NongHyup stated that it would improve the structure for member participation in decision-making to ensure that the sovereignty of cooperative members is substantively strengthened, and ensure that the outcomes of all its businesses and policies directly benefit the members. In doing so, NongHyup affirmed its principle that "the owners of NongHyup are the agricultural cooperative members."

Chairman Kang said, "We will use this period of reform as a new starting point for restoring farmers' trust, strengthening cooperative members' sovereignty, and advancing a major transformation in Korean agriculture and rural communities. Moving forward, we will prepare concrete action plans and roadmaps focused on revitalizing economic operations, and demonstrate to the public that NongHyup is capable of self-driven change and responsible management."

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