Gangwon Province, 18 cities and counties, Ministry of Interior and Safety hold roundtable

Officials from the Ministry of Interior and Safety and Gangwon Province attend a roundtable on improving living conditions in depopulation areas.
Officials from the Ministry of Interior and Safety and Gangwon Province attend a roundtable on improving living conditions in depopulation areas.

Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province announced Friday that it has formally asked the Ministry of Interior and Safety to expand the province's depopulation-area designations, arguing that the region's unique role in supporting national security and supplying water and electricity to the Greater Seoul area — while bearing extensive regulations — should be factored into the redesignation criteria.

The redesignation of depopulation areas is scheduled for October.

Gangwon Province conveyed the request to the central government Thursday at a "Living Conditions Improvement Project Performance Management Roundtable" held at the Hwacheon-gun Office main conference room, with officials from the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the provincial government, and local cities and counties in attendance.

The roundtable was organized to share progress on living-conditions improvement projects carried out under the Local Extinction Response Fund and the Special Situation Area Development Project, and to discuss future performance management plans.

About 100 people attended, including Kim Gun-ho, director general for balanced development at the Ministry of Interior and Safety, along with department heads and working-level staff from the province and municipalities responsible for fund management, border-area affairs, and social solidarity economy initiatives.

The session covered five areas: updates from the province and municipalities on the Local Extinction Response Fund and Special Situation Area Development Project; a review of spending and utilization records for each project; an assessment of whether completed facilities and programs are translating into real improvements in living conditions; a ministry presentation on its policy direction for addressing local extinction and plans to strengthen performance management; and open remarks and discussion led by field-level staff.

Kim Dong-jun, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province's policy director for local extinction response, said the Local Extinction Response Fund and the Special Situation Area Development Project are "core tools for meaningfully transforming living conditions in depopulation areas." He added that the province would use feedback from the roundtable to strengthen its performance management framework and work toward building "a special Gangwon autonomous province where residents can thrive."

Calls for more sweeping government support for Gangwon Province have grown louder both inside and outside the region, with many arguing that decades of relative neglect since liberation warrant far more generous treatment from the central government.


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