Gyeonggi Province's "Real-name System" Management for Pine Wilt Disease

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 13th that it will implement strong countermeasures including designating local responsibility officials as pine wilt disease shows signs of spreading.

The province will conduct a comprehensive survey from March 15 to April 3 at a cost of 1.4 billion won to check whether pine wilt disease has infected coniferous trees such as pine and Korean pine across approximately 532,200 hectares of forests throughout the province.

The survey will deploy not only forest officials but all available civil servants, and plans to actively involve local residents familiar with the geography of their respective areas.

In particular, the province will introduce a real-name responsibility system for each survey area and plans to discipline responsible officials for outbreak areas detected after May.

A provincial official said, "Since pine wilt disease was discovered in Gwangju and Namyangju, there are no signs of it spreading within the province, but consecutive outbreaks have been reported in nearby Chuncheon and Wonju in Gangwon Province, prompting us to conduct inspections," adding that "public attention nationwide is also necessary."