President Moon Jae-in visited a southeastern rural village Friday to encourage farmers who were busy planting rice.
He briefly planted rice himself and attended the test operation of an agricultural drone and a self-driving rice-planting device in Oksan village in Gyeongju, 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to his office, Cheong Wa Dae.
"Given the reality of rural areas suffering difficulties from the aging population and labor shortages, there's a desperate need to develop and spread new technologies," Moon said.
(Yonhap)
On the reason for the selection of the village for Moon's trip, Cheong Wa Dae cited a well-organized community by local residents living in harmony.
The village is also home to Oksan Seowon, a Korean neo-Confucian academy from the 16th century, and more than 200 state-designated historic treasures.
Oksan is one of the nine academies recommended as candidates to be added to the UNESCO world heritage list last week.
Eating a bowl of noodles over "makgeolli," a Korean rice wine, Moon pointed out that South Korea has transformed itself into a rice donor from a recipient thanks to farmers' efforts. (Yonhap)
