CRI

 [ABSTRACT]

This study aims to find a way to attract the population by creating an attractive rural environment as it is expected to be difficult no matter how great facilities and operation plans are prepared at the present time when the population of rural areas is decreasing and aging. The future of local extinction is likely to accelerate further in the future due to the interaction of the demographic structure and many socio-economic factors. How local governments understand and anticipate the dynamics of local extinction will also affect the level and timing of policy responses to the severity of the problem. The level of awareness of the severity of the problem will also determine the level of response and the likelihood of recovery. Two structures are continuously operating: the natural decline of the population of the country as a whole and the movement of the population of non-metropolitan areas to the metropolitan area. Therefore, regionally, rural areas are experiencing a faster process of rural extinction, which is intensifying into an inevitable situation. In particular, rural areas have been declining rapidly without recovering since the population decreased.

If rural extinction is a difficult path to avoid, it is necessary to take a stronger response to population decline without delay. Nonetheless, it can be said that Korea is likely to face a situation where population growth is a difficult problem among difficulties, and the policy is not possible. Therefore, local governments should rediscover the charm of rural areas and serve as an opportunity not only to revitalize the local economy but also to attract population.

First, it is to support the restructuring and regeneration of rural spaces. Rural policies are needed to attract returnees and related populations. This is because risk factors such as rural population decline and the emergence of regional extinction crisis are ever-present. Therefore, it is necessary to rediscover the charm of rural areas for rural residents.

Second, it is the establishment of social services tcustomized for rural areas. The government has continuously created living services in rural areas, but the infrastructure is insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to improve rural settlement conditions, expand support for living services, support for female farmers and women living in rural areas, and spread services led by rural communities.

Third, it is the creation of a foundation for regional revitalization. The proportion of primary and secondary industries in the rural regional economy structure is relatively high, and high-value-added industries are distributed mainly in some regions. Therefore, direct interaction between urban dwellers and rural dwellers is required through rural exchanges. 

Fourth, when rural areas are facing rural extinction, it is necessary to provide discriminatory and innovative support by dualizing projects that support the influx of population from other regions and policies and projects to support companies, youth, women, and the elderly to prevent the outflow of population from existing regions.

Therefore, in order to successfully respond to rural extinction and transform the demographic structure of the region into a sustainable state, it is desirable to have policies that can alleviate the imbalance in the demographic structure, not just to increase the population.