South Korean Cultural Ecology - 1905 to 1990
Part 3: The Plight of the Farmers - Page 18

C. Government Changes for Farmers

The Saemaul Undong (New Community Movement) has resulted in changes in the rural landscape. Ostensibly a campaign to mobilize the rural masses for self-reliance, Saemaul organized farmers into cooperative production teams and work brigades to repair roads, bridges and other rural infrastructure. These changes have two faces, one face when you read the Korean government publications, and another when you read independent non-government sources. The government sources report that:

"Farm villages are gradually being developed into well-organized communities with a systematic arrangement of houses increasingly constructed of cement and tile. In fact, most straw-thatched houses disappeared during the 1970s. The use of wood fires for heating in the rural areas is decreasing rapidly with the increasing use of coal."