President Lee Jae-myung on the 14th said, "The grand transition of rural communities and agriculture starts with fixing the structural ills embedded throughout our agriculture," adding, "Normalizing NongHyup, which supports the foundation of agriculture, is more important than anything." The remark came as NongHyup, a massive organization with more than 1,100 business sites nationwide and 1.87 million members, is undergoing a special government audit over alleged corruption by the federation's president, and the National Assembly is also pushing related legislation.
In the afternoon at Cheong Wa Dae, Lee presided over a senior secretaries' meeting and said, "NongHyup bears a heavy responsibility to protect farmers' rights and interests and to promote the sustainable development of rural communities, but the reality falls short."
Lee said, "The reality is that NongHyup has been constantly criticized for failing to fulfill its original role due to an opaque decision-making structure and corruption by some executives and employees," adding, "We must promptly and fully return NongHyup, built by farmers' sweat and dedication, to the embrace of farmers."
Lee also called for institutional reforms such as a "direct election by members." Lee said, "From the perspective of members' sovereignty, the governance structure should be improved swiftly, and normalization measures such as strengthening democratic oversight must also be completed quickly," adding, "I hope you will accelerate reforms to related systems, such as introducing direct elections by members, so that NongHyup can clearly be reborn as a genuine NongHyup that takes the lead in advancing agriculture and improving farmers' quality of life."
Under the current Agricultural Cooperative Act, the president of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation is chosen by a direct vote of cooperative heads. After allegations of corruption recently emerged surrounding National Agricultural Cooperative Federation President Kang Ho-dong, the National Assembly has been accelerating reforms of NongHyup, including amending the law at the standing committee level. Earlier, the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee held a legislative hearing on the 12th for the amendment. The revision would overhaul the election method, including introducing direct elections by members.