Minister Kim Yoon-deok of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 18th, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will do its best to fulfill the generational task of balanced development."
The Minister said this in an opening address at the "2025 Korea National Land Awards," held at the Conrad Hotel in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, saying, "There is a long-standing challenge before us: 'balanced national land development.'"
The Minister said, "As global interest in our culture has grown, the number of foreign tourists has increased, but most stay only in Seoul and leave," adding, "For the national land to develop evenly, people's footsteps must follow. Cities across the regions must become spaces that make people want to visit and stay, drawing their footsteps."
She added, "This is possible when a region's unique natural and urban landscapes combine with cultural content, and the local attractions created in this way become a 'center of gravity' that drives balanced development. I hope today's event will serve as a milestone on the journey of balanced development."
Jointly hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS), and the Architecture & Urban Research Institute (AURI), the Korea National Land Awards is the premier event in the fields of national land landscape and design, aimed at enhancing the overall quality of Korea's national land space and discovering and awarding exemplary cases by field, including buildings and infrastructure that create outstanding landscapes.
Including the special category, awards are given to a total of 24 works across nine sectors spanning national land space, including streets and plazas, buildings, social infrastructure, and cultural landscapes.
This year's presidential award went to Suncheon's "Vitamin community embracing gardens, Jeojeon-gol." Jeojeon-gol is a village of 115,000 square meters (35,000 pyeong) located in Jeojeon-dong, Suncheon. Drawing on the fact that paper mulberry trees once filled the village, it is now being cultivated and specialized as a garden village. It was highly praised for actively discovering and utilizing local unique assets to promote regional specialization and strengthen competitiveness.
The prime minister's award went to Nowon District in Seoul for "Surak Hue, Seoul's first urban-style natural recreation forest." It is a case of creating Seoul's first natural recreation forest (the first in Seoul among 174 nationwide) and recreational facilities by utilizing Suraksan, Nowon's largest natural environmental asset.