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The Change of Farmland Condition in Yeoncheon in the Imjin & Hantan River Basin in South Korea in the 20th Century

  • Journal of Humanities
  • 2021, (82), pp.31-79
  • DOI : 10.31310/HUM.082.02
  • Publisher : Institute for Humanities
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : July 8, 2020
  • Accepted : July 28, 2021
  • Published : August 31, 2021

CHUNG, SEUNG-JIN 1

1성균관대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Yeoncheon (漣川) County, located in the central region of the Korean Peninsula, was a major transportation point that the Japanese imperialists put great geopolitical importance on and in which they established the Kyeongwon Railroad (京元線) in 1914. After that, Yeoncheon had enjoyed its fame as a national network during the Japanese colonial period along with Wonsan Port. However, Yeoncheon County had fallen behind other regions after the Korea War (1950-53), and couldn’t help but experience a so-called ‘geographical vacuum’ near the de-militarized zone (DMZ). Especially, the farmland and irrigation condition of Yeoncheon was devastated in the Imjin & Hantan River Basin. The population had also declined in the 1950s. In the present state of the military tension between South Korea and North Korea, Yeoncheon will be per se a local representation symbolizing the peace of the Korean Peninsula like Cheorwon County. This paper has examined that, if we can penetrate through the blocked waterway and railway in Yeoncheon and Cheorwon, we can finally look for the passage to the peace of the Korean Peninsula.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.