Saemaul Movement
Also called: New Village Movement · Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Paths to Modernisation"
Meaning
The Saemaul Movement, or New Village Movement, was launched in South Korea in 1970 under President Park Chung-hee. It encouraged villagers to work together to improve their own villages and modernise farming. It also aimed to replace hopelessness with confidence that hard work could change their lives. It was later extended to towns and cities. Today its model is shared with other developing countries.
Example
Under Saemaul from 1970, villagers improved their own roads, housing and farming methods, often using materials the state supplied. It was a key part of Park Chung-hee's plan to modernise rural Korea alongside fast industrial growth.
Don't confuse with
- China's Great Leap Forward (1958): the Great Leap forced peasants into huge communes and backyard steel furnaces and caused disaster. Saemaul encouraged villages to improve themselves inside a market economy.
Related concepts
- Taiwan
- Cross-Strait relations
- Joseon dynasty
- Japanese annexation of Korea
- 38th parallel
- Korean War
- Park Chung-hee
- Export-oriented industrialisation
- Import substitution industrialisation
- Gwangju Democratisation Movement