The Korea Local Administration Review

Korea Saemaul Undong has been recognized as a development model for thedeveloping countries seeking to modernize and develop them in a short periodof time, using compressed growth strategy. Many countries and internationalorganizations view Korea Saemaul Undong as an exceptional poverty reductionmodel. Since Saemaul Undong was a particularly successful strategy for Korea'srural development, the UN, OECD, and ADB have encouraged Korea to establishSaemaul Undong as a formal model and academic discipline other developingcountries could follow. Under this background, this study attempts to identifycore issues and essential policy measures underlying Saemaul Undong and toput forward academic and practical implications for other countries to be able toapply them to their own circumstances, employing social network analysis. Forthis purpose, it gathers data from newspaper articles regarding Saemaul Undongpublished between 1970 and 2012. The results of the analysis show thatprinciples and theories of Saemaul Undong deserve to be acceptable in the fieldof academic discipline, and also suggest that more sophistigated paradigm ofSaemaul Undong be constructed.
□ Keywords: Seamaul Undong, Saemaul as academic discipline, poverty reduction,global Saemaul Undong, Text analysis