Park Wan-su calls for national-level response as damage spreads across southern regions

South Gyeongsang Province Governor Park Wan-su inspects a pine wilt disease-affected site in Naegok-ri, Yeohang-myeon, Haman-gun on Tuesday and orders the establishment of a preemptive response system. [South Gyeongsang Province]
South Gyeongsang Province Governor Park Wan-su inspects a pine wilt disease-affected site in Naegok-ri, Yeohang-myeon, Haman-gun on Tuesday and orders the establishment of a preemptive response system. [South Gyeongsang Province]

As pine wilt disease spreads rapidly across South Gyeongsang Province and other southern regions, Governor Park Wan-su visited control sites Tuesday to order the establishment of a preemptive response system.

Park visited a preventive tree-injection project site in Naegok-ri, Yeohang-myeon, Haman-gun, and a chartered helicopter base in Daesan-myeon, inspecting the progress of control efforts and the province's forest disaster readiness. The visit followed South Gyeongsang Province's call to the central government on Oct. 27 to designate pine wilt disease a "social disaster" and build a nationally integrated control framework.

More than 80 percent of the approximately 1.77 million trees killed by pine wilt disease nationwide this year are concentrated in the southern regions. Within South Gyeongsang Province, the number of trees targeted for control jumped roughly fivefold — from 220,000 in 2022 to about 1.11 million this year. The Yeohang-myeon site Park visited covers 25 hectares of forest bordering Jinbuk-myeon in Changwon and serves as a key control zone aimed at halting the spread of damage across the Yeohangsan area. The province is focusing its preventive tree-injection program there, a treatment whose protective effect lasts two to six years.

At the scene, Park said simply removing already-damaged trees after the fact has its limits. "In seriously affected areas we must suppress further spread, while in less affected areas we need early control — a tailored strategy," he said. "Local governments cannot handle this alone, so a national-level control command and stable fiscal support from the central government must go hand in hand."

Park then visited the helicopter base in Daesan-myeon, where he confirmed the readiness of 10 chartered aircraft — including large helicopters with a water capacity of 5,000 liters — for emergency deployment. "Thorough preparation in normal times is the key to reducing wildfire damage," he said, urging staff to maintain maintenance schedules and coordination with relevant agencies, and offering words of encouragement to those at the scene.


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