As the government and ruling party accelerate efforts to craft a second Nonghyup reform plan, voices within the Democratic Party are calling for the chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (Nonghyup) to be converted from a non-standing to a standing position. The rationale is that although the chairman is legally a non-standing officer, in practice he wields considerable influence over the management of the federation and its affiliates, warranting institutional changes to ensure responsibility commensurate with that authority.
According to political circles on the 27th, Democratic Party members of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee have recently held a series of closed-door party-government consultations with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to discuss farm policy issues for the second half of the year. At a meeting on the 21st of this month, they reportedly shared the content of the ministry's report to the president and reviewed major legislative tasks, including Nonghyup reform. The party and government plan to pass the first Nonghyup reform bill, centered on introducing direct elections for the chairman, in the second half of this year, and then move to legislate a second reform plan aimed at revitalizing economic operations.
Within the ruling party, there are calls to pursue the conversion of the chairman to a standing position as a follow-up reform task. This is because the chairman's representativeness and political legitimacy are expected to grow further once direct elections are introduced. Accordingly, they argue that the chairman, who is a non-standing officer under current law, should be converted to a standing position to strengthen accountability for the organization's operations.
Rep. Yoon Jun-byung, the ruling party's secretary on the committee, said in a phone call with Seoul Economic Daily, "Although he is called non-standing now, he in fact exercises even more powerful authority than a standing officer." He added, "From the perspective that authority and responsibility must align, it is desirable to make him bear commensurate responsibility through conversion to a standing position."
He also stressed, "The structures that could allow abuse of authority should be reorganized first, and then the conversion to a standing position should follow." He said, "Rather than pushing everything at once, it is right to handle the first reform tasks and then discuss the standing conversion and economic operations restructuring as follow-ups." He also set out a goal to propose an amendment to the Agricultural Cooperatives Act within this year that would specify the chairman's conversion to a standing position.
However, the government has taken a cautious stance, saying it could weaken the professional management system. There are considerable concerns that converting the chairman back to a standing position could lead to a return to a chairman-centered management system. A ministry official said, "Converting to a standing position could run counter to the government's push to disperse the chairman's authority and strengthen the accountability of professional managers."
