Cheong Wa Dae rejected claims that a nationwide farmland investigation could force elderly or health-affected farmers to sell their land, saying most allegations were untrue. Lee Youngsoo, Cheong Wa Dae’s Agricultural, Forestry, and Livestock Secretary, said the investigation targets only illegally leased or fallow farmland classified as speculative, leaving most cases outside its scope. Farmers over 60 who have held qualifications for at least five years may privately lease land to relatives or acquaintances, while inherited farmland under 1 hectare can be privately entrusted to friends or acquaintances. Enforcement fines apply only to speculative farmland. Cheong Wa Dae also denied that the government planned to purchase farmland at below-market prices. Farmers who do not want to sell are not required to do so, while those who choose to sell may receive assistance from a budget under preparation; the Farmland Bank will buy land at market prices. Lee apologized for the anxiety caused among farmers and said the investigation was intended to return speculative farmland to farmers and improve systems to reflect current conditions. He acknowledged that farmland prices have declined overall but rejected the investigation as the main cause, identifying the 2021 Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) farmland speculation scandal as the root cause. Farmland transaction volumes rose 2.2% from the same period last year, while prices fell 4.4%, less than the annual average decline of 9% after the LH scandal.