South Korea will pursue "balanced cultural growth across five metropolitan zones and three special zones," a framework that ties together local living areas and broader supra-regional blocs. The goal is to shift a cultural structure concentrated in the greater Seoul area and achieve balanced regional growth through culture. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the Third Basic Plan for Regional Culture Promotion (2026-2030) on the 15th.
According to the ministry, the third plan differs from earlier ones in how it views regions and in the direction of its policies. Rather than treating regional culture policy as a matter for individual administrative districts, the plan aligns with living and economic zones that are being integrated into supra-regional blocs — the greater Seoul area, the southeast, the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area, the central region and the Honam region, along with special self-governing provinces such as Gangwon, North Jeolla and Jeju. It also introduces a new agreement-based system in which regions draw up plans and the central government provides support, instead of the central government leading regional culture policy. It is the cultural version of the Lee Jae-myung administration's push for balanced regional development.
The third basic plan sets out a vision of "everyday life with culture, regions where people want to stay," with participation and cooperation, connection and sustainable growth, and distinctiveness and diversity as its guiding values. It lays out four strategies — building a regional culture ecosystem on solid foundations, establishing a cooperative system and a basis for cultural self-governance, balanced cultural growth linking living areas and supra-regional blocs, and creating a future of regions enriched by culture — along with 16 core tasks.
The plan first calls for a solid regional culture ecosystem, guaranteeing residents' "basic cultural rights" and strengthening the self-sustaining capacity of regional culture. Once a municipal government draws up a plan to guarantee basic cultural rights, the central, provincial and municipal governments will sign multi-year policy agreements and carry out projects. The ministry will set guidelines and provide state funding, provincial governments will offer consulting on the plans and link them to financing, and municipal governments will draw up the plans and execute the projects.
Investment in the people who will lead regional culture will also be expanded. Specialists such as regional culture planners will be trained and deployed to local sites to identify residents' cultural needs and design and run programs. An integrated database of culture professionals will be built to certify the careers of artists, instructors and culture planners and connect them with work.
The ministry will expand support for aspiring and emerging artists and will review ways to increase the participation of local artists in performances and festivals funded by the state and local governments. Culture and arts centers will take on a bigger role as hubs for creating and producing performances tailored to their regions, and outstanding local works will receive follow-up support for nationwide distribution and overseas expansion.
Conditions for residents to enjoy culture will improve as well. Idle spaces such as closed industrial facilities and industrial complexes will be reinvented as cultural venues. "Culture Day," now expanded to once a week, and the "Our Neighborhood Project," which brings quality performances and exhibitions to the regions, will widen everyday access to culture. The current Youth Culture and Arts Pass will become the Youth Culture Pass in 2027, with a broader range of recipients and eligible fields, sharply expanding young people's opportunities to enjoy culture.
Cooperation channels will be restored to clearly redefine the roles of the central, provincial and municipal governments and to build a cooperative system. Policy consultative bodies linking the central government with provincial governments and with municipal governments will meet on a regular schedule, the regional culture cooperation committees that serve as public-private channels will be run more substantively, and ties between the central and provincial committees will be strengthened.
The ministry also plans to build up the capacity of regional culture institutions. The Regional Culture Promotion Agency, which until now has supported the execution of regional culture projects, will take on a strengthened role in developing regional culture policy, accumulating data and leading cooperation among regional culture institutions. Local culture foundations and similar bodies will receive tailored staff training and standard operating manuals.
The financial base for regional culture will be reinforced. To increase the size of the Regional Culture Promotion Fund, the ministry will consider amending Article 22 of the Regional Culture Promotion Act, currently a discretionary provision, into a mandatory one. It will continue consultations with related ministries to give more substance to projects transferred to local governments and to cultural projects under the fund for responding to regional depopulation.
The scope of everyday culture policy will expand beyond enjoyment to "creative community care." Working with social welfare institutions, the ministry will identify needs and connect specialists to expand care and healing within local communities through culture. It also plans to promote a "culture prescription project," in which residents and artists jointly address local issues such as depopulation, ecological crises and conflicts among residents through cultural means. Distinctive local cultural assets — regional dialects, the culture of villages at risk of disappearing, and the peace culture of the Demilitarized Zone and border areas — will be recorded and preserved, with support for developing them into cultural content such as performances, exhibitions and festivals. The ministry will also pursue innovation in cultural services using artificial intelligence.
Even so, the assessment is that there is a long way to go toward balanced development of regional culture. Region-led cultural policy requires that authority and funding be transferred to the regions. Cultural figures also say a comprehensive approach is needed, one that addresses concerns about the regions' limited capacity to carry out cultural policy.
"People stay in a region not only because of jobs and housing, but because of the culture they can enjoy there," Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young said. "Through the third basic plan, we will guarantee basic cultural rights so that people can enjoy culture without discrimination wherever they live, and the central government will firmly support regions in gaining the strength to create and grow their own culture."
