Outcome of Land Reform in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

When the Republic of Korea enacted the Land Reform Law in 1950, it set in motion a most important series of changes in the economy of South Korea. The purpose of land reform was set forth in Article I as follows: . .. on the basis of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea pertaining to farm lands to improve the living conditions of farmers, to keep the balance of, and to develop the national economy by increasing agricultural productivity.l Maximum size of farm set by the law was three chungbo (7.35 acres).2 The terms of the Republic of Korea land reform program were such that a tenant purchaser was sold the land at 150 per cent of the total value of one year's crop. The tenant purchaser was allowed to pay 30 per cent of the crop for five years. The land lord was given bonds limited in redemption in any one year to 30 per cent of the value of the crop estimated as an average harvest and he was allowed this 30 per cent of crops over a five-year period. In South Korea about 70 per cent of all farmers were tenant farmers in 1945. The rent paid peasants ran as high as 60 per cent of the crop. This went largely to absentee landlords, who made up a small but wealthy aristocracy. One of the basic difficulties faced in land reform in Korea was the fact that it was conducted during a war period when there was extreme inflation. The accumulated price increase from mid-1945 to mid-1953 was on the order of a ten thousand-fold jump.3