South Koreans flee cramped urban life for rural bliss

MUNGYEONG, SOUTH KOREA // A year ago, the South Korean executive Chung Man-gyoo spent weekdays driving his Hyundai Grandeur sedan through the jammed streets of Seoul to his suburban office. At weekends he drove it to the golf course.

Now, Mr Chung, 53, fills the rear seat of the same black car with tools and fertiliser for his one-acre farm in the rural east of the country. His golf clubs lie unused except when his wife swings them to chase stray cats away from their house.

"I don't miss life in the city at all," said Mr Chung, who used to work for an electronics company that supplied components to Samsung Electronics.

One of the growing number of South Koreans moving back to the countryside, Mr Chung lives in Mungyeong, a small farming town in the eastern hills, where it takes an hour by car to get to the nearest train station.

"I now wake up in the morning with pleasure. I also have more time to be with my wife and talk with her. Our relationship has never been closer," Mr Chung said.

Large numbers of people migrated to Korean cities in the 1970s and 1980s as the country industrialised and job opportunities grew quickly. Their children got access to education, and then stayed on in the cities.

As South Korea made the leap from poverty to rich nation status in a generation, it turned into Asia's most urbanised country, apart from city states like Singapore. More than half its 50 million people live in Seoul and its surrounding suburbs.

According to government statistics, 10,503 families left Korean cities in 2011 to take up farming, more than double the number in 2010. For many, the constant need to compete for jobs, promotion and space in the city was just not worth it.

"Every day, I woke up, went to work and then drank with friends and co-workers. I began asking myself: 'What am I doing,'" said Yoon Woo-jin, 32, who quit his real estate job a month ago and plans to move to the countryside with his wife.

South Korea's activist government, which, hand in hand with big business, drove the rapid industrialisation of the 1970s to create what is now the world's 13th largest economy, wants to breathe life back into rural communities.

"We plan to increase the number of households moving back to 20,000 by providing support in the form of tax benefits and financial aid," Suh Kyu-young, the agriculture minister, said recently.

The ministry says people want to move "to live a life worthy of human dignity" in a country where the average worker puts in 2,200 hours year, the highest in the developed world, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Mr Yoon, the former real estate company employee, was one of 52 people between 26 and 60 who attended a recent

government-sponsored class in Seoul run by a voluntary body called Refarm, where professors and those who have made a successful transition to farming teach the next generation of hopefuls.

The government has touted the success of some of those who have opted for country life, dubbing farming a "Blue Ocean" of potential and wealth, where incomes in excess of 100 million won (Dh320,000) a year can be made.

One such success story is Suh Jeong-deok, a former researcher for Hanwha Chemical, whose earnings place him in the top 1.42 per cent of farm incomes, based on government data.

But it was ill-health and a hyper-competitive school system, that sees even preschool children packed into cram schools in a bid to get a head start, that made Mr Suh, the father of two teenage girls, opt out.

"My wife used to push our children in elementary school," said Mr Suh, 49, who has been farming cucumbers for the

past three years. "Instead of forcing our children to reach our expectations, we decided to lower our bar."

The downside of leaving the city? Farm incomes are generally markedly lower, averaging 32 million won a year, according to government data, against the average city income of 42 million won.

Many farming families rely on government handouts to survive, with agricultural subsidies accounting for 45 per cent of farmer's incomes, according to the OECD, more than double paid to the cosseted farmers of the European Union.

"Our students believe in 'voluntary poverty' - meaning that one must sacrifice wealth in order to be closer to nature," said Park Yong-bum, the head of Refarm.

Mr Chung, the berry farmer, used to earn around 90 million won every year in the city. His income as a farmer last year was about 20 million.

But he said it was worth it.

"If you want to make a lot of money, you should stay in the city," he said. "You have to leave your greed behind."