| New Community Movement | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 새마을 운동 |
| Hanja | 새마을 運動 |
| Revised Romanization | Saemaeul Undong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Saemaŭl Undong |
The New Community Movement, also known as the New Village Movement or Saemaeul Movement, was a political initiative launched on April 22, 1970 by South Korean president Park Chung Hee to modernize the rural South Korean economy. It initially sought to rectify the growing disparity of the standard of living between the nation's urban centres, which were rapidly industrializing, and the small villages, which continued to be mired in poverty. Later projects concentrated on building up rural infrastructure.[1] Though hailed as a great success in the 1970s, the movement lost momentum during the 1980s as it became increasingly unclear whether the program had achieved its objectives.
The movement promoted self-help and co-operation among the people, as the central government provided a fixed amount of raw materials to each of the participating villages free of charge and entrusted the locals to build whatever they wished with them. Villages that demonstrated success were then granted additional resources.[2]
The New Community Movement did much to improve infrastructure in rural South Korea, bringing modernized facilities such as water systems, bridges and roads to rural communities. The program also marked the widespread appearance of orange tiled houses throughout the countryside, replacing the traditional thatched or choga-jip houses. However, the movement proved ultimately inadequate in addressing the larger problem of rural poverty, from which stemmed the issue of mass migration from the villages to cities by the country's younger demographic. Poverty among South Korea's farmers became a major political issue in the late 1980s, one that no government intervention had been able to fully solve.[3]