LEE Kunbyol

PD, SBS Production Division

LEE Kunbyol
Times of the Remarks 2024. 11. 12. 11:45-12:10
Title Panel Talk

The program Paldo Jumugwan takes its cast to local municipalities around Korea to work as junior civil servants in various government departments for three days, during which time the spotlight is also turned to local voices and important local issues. Beginning in April, PD Lee Kunbyol spent half a year’s time visiting Yeongyang County in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province and Gangjin County in Jeollanam-do Province, where the program was filmed. Yeongyang County, which records 300 deaths a year versus under 30 births, is a place where Korea’s crisis of rural depopulation can be clearly felt. County residents understand the severity of the situation as well, such that they are overwhelmingly willing to accommodate so-called undesirable facilities like a prison or a pumped storage hydropower plant in their vicinity, as long as their population can grow as a result. In Gangjin County, the local government’s Population Policy Division was awarded the 2024 Presidential Commendation for making successful headway in tackling its rural depopulation crisis by implementing a range of methods and ideas.

Filmography
SBS Anniversary Special Documentary Whales and I
SBS Documentary Everywhere and Nowhere: Yohan, Sidol, Yonghyeon (translated title)


[Session Title and Description]

On the Ground with Our Civil Servants in the Fight Against Rural Depopulation

Korea is a country in the midst of extinction. With a birth rate at risk of dipping even lower than its current level of 0.7, population extinction has emerged as the biggest threat affecting Korea’s fate. Outside of overcrowded Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan region, the crisis of population extinction is even more severe. In rural villages, children and young people have vanished, with only the elderly remaining. Villages with “youth leaders” in their sixties abound. This session vividly relates experiences observed on the ground during filming of the documentary program Paldo Jumugwan, which takes cast members to work as junior civil servants for three days at a time in various municipalities around the country.