Starting with a pilot project in Uljin this year, the 800-kilometer belt will be built in phases nationwide by 2030 as part of a national pine wilt disease control strategy.
South Korea is launching a national strategy to combat pine wilt disease and protect high-value pine trees — including centuries-old specimens — along with the broader pine forest ecosystem.
The Korea Forest Service announced Friday it will build a "national pine wilt disease control belt" in phases to halt the spread of the disease.
The number of trees damaged by pine wilt disease nationwide has reached about 1.77 million, with losses mounting rapidly. In response, the Korea Forest Service established a national pine wilt disease control strategy in January.
The control belt is the centerpiece of that strategy — a state-led defensive barrier at least 2 kilometers wide, built along the outer edges of affected areas to prevent the disease from spreading into clean zones and to help lightly affected areas recover their disease-free status.
Japan, where the pine sawyer beetle — the insect that carries pine wilt disease — has a flight range of 2 kilometers, has used a similar approach to protect its pine forests for more than a decade.
However, the Korea Forest Service said it will continue working with the National Institute of Forest Science and other research institutions to develop more fundamental defenses, including a cure for pine wilt disease.
The agency will select project sites by weighing the extent of damage, the distribution of pine forests, terrain characteristics and the urgency of control measures, with plans to build roughly 800 kilometers of the belt in stages by 2030.
Within the control belt, tailored measures will be applied according to local damage conditions — including forest tending, preventive tree injections and species conversion. The agency also plans to strengthen control effectiveness through ongoing state-led surveillance and monitoring.
In the second half of this year, the Korea Forest Service will run a pilot project targeting national forests in northern North Gyeongsang Province, including Uljin, to verify the belt's field applicability and effectiveness. Based on those results, the agency plans to expand the project sequentially from 2027.
"The national control belt is a state-led defensive line built to stop pine wilt disease from spreading across the country," said Lee Won-hee, head of the Korea Forest Service's Forest Pest Control Division. "We will protect healthy pine forests through systematic surveillance and intensive control measures."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
