![[르포] 재선충병 청정지역도 뚫렸다…울긋불긋 말라 쓰러진 강원 산림](https://time.news/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/202609101351297905_e.jpg "Pine Wilt Disease Devastates South Korean Forests, Sparking Urgent Calls for Aid")
Pine wilt disease is rapidly devastating forests across South Korea in September 2026. The 1mm parasitic nematode destroys water transport tissues and carries a 100% fatality rate within one year. Outbreaks are overwhelming local jurisdictions from Chuncheon to Uljin, prompting urgent demands for national state-led containment and emergency government intervention.
Chuncheon Outbreak and the Spread Across Gangwon Forests
Chuncheon is at the epicenter of the crisis in Gangwon Province. At the foot of Chuncheon Drreumsan, the air echoes with the loud roar of chainsaws cutting down straight pine and cedar trees. The mountain ridges are covered with reddish-brown dead trees that casual hikers might mistake for early autumn foliage.
The infestation is spreading quickly to neighboring areas including Hong천, Hoengseong, and Wonju. Because Wonju and Hoengseong share borders with Yangpyeong County in Gyeonggi Province, metropolitan Seoul’s surrounding forests are now at risk.
Residents living near the logging sites argue that authorities reacted too slowly. Huang Dal-jung, a 61-year-old resident living directly below a tree-species conversion site, voiced deep frustration over the delayed response.
I started seeing trees dying off about 5 years ago. If they had aggressively invested budget in pest control from the very beginning, we wouldn’t have lost the forest. Now we have to pour in a massive amount of money, which is like locking the barn door after the horse is stolen. Huang Dal-jung, Resident
National Tree Death Statistics and Local Vulnerability in Seocheon
The broader national picture reveals a worsening epidemic. According to data submitted to National Assembly Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee member Kim Seon-kyo by the Korea Forest Service, the number of infected pine trees nationwide reached millions in 2026. Over the last five years (2022–2026), millions of trees have succumbed to the disease.
Total infections nationwide climbed steadily from hundreds of thousands of trees in 2022 to over a million in 2023, dipped slightly in 2024, and surged to over a million in 2025. Gyeongbuk province suffered the heaviest losses with millions of trees affected, accounting for 45.4% of the national total. Gyeongnam followed with over a million trees (20.5%), Ulsan with hundreds of thousands of trees (7.2%), and state-managed national forests with hundreds of thousands of trees (5.8%).
Meanwhile, local governments face steep operational challenges. In Seocheon County, Deputy Mayor Yoo Jae-young held an emergency press briefing to outline aggressive local countermeasures. Seocheon’s pine forests cover 7,513 hectares—representing 51.7% of the county’s total forest area.
To combat this surge, Seocheon plans to inject billions of won in the second half of the year to remove dead trees, expand preventive tree injections, and convert vulnerable forest species. The county is also petitioning for additional budget allocations to secure up to billions of won by September and is establishing a dedicated forest pest response team.
The Threat to Uljin Geumgang Pine Forests and National Heritage
Further south, the crisis threatens an irreplaceable national asset. Uljin County officials warn that the famous Uljin Geumgang pine forest—historically harvested for royal building timber and used in the restoration of national treasures like Sungnyemun and Gwanghwamun—has entered the danger zone.
Uljin first detected pine wilt disease in December 2020. Although local efforts cleared the disease and briefly restored clean status by December 2023, the pest returned just 10 months later in October 2024. As of now, 195 infected trees have been confirmed, placing 36% of Uljin’s total forest area under pine export prohibition zones across nine townships and 36 villages.
The spread now threatens the coastal pine forests of Wolsongjeong Pavilion and the Wangpicheon ecological conservation area, edging dangerously close to the century-old red pine colonies in Sogwang-ri. If this barrier falls, the supply chain of large timber required for traditional wooden architecture will be permanently broken.
Shifting Defense Strategies: From Single-Tree Removal to Blanket Felling
Because traditional methods of cutting down individual infected trees and fumigating them cannot match the rapid transmission speed of vector insects like the Japanese pine sawyer and white-spotted sawyer beetle, local authorities are abandoning single-tree removal.
In Uljin, forest managers now secure landowner consent to execute complete clear-cutting of small pine clusters surrounding infected trees, combined with preventive tree injections within a 100-meter radius. Along national frontline zones stretching from Wolsongjeong to Baegamsan, officials are applying long-lasting combination tree injections that maintain efficacy for up to four years.
Similarly, Chuncheon has cleared 7,000 conifers across a 15.6-hectare area in Nam-myeon Gajeong-ri since last year, planting broadleaf saplings such as white birch, sawtooth oak, mountain ash, dogwood, and raisin trees to convert forest types and prevent recurrences. However, with 166 cities, counties, and districts nationwide battling infections, local governments argue their budgets and workforces are stretched past their limits.
Demands for State-Led Responsibility and Centralized Funding
Local leadership is pushing back against equal-share budget allocations from the central government. Uljin County officials formally urged the Korea Forest Service to abandon the practice of splitting disaster funds equally among all affected municipalities. Instead, they demand that the state concentrate resources and professional forestry personnel directly into high-value ecological treasuries like Uljin.
Forests that have grown for hundreds of years can never be restored even 100 years after they collapse. The government must recognize Uljin, home to the nation’s largest Geumgang pine forest, as the final defense line protecting South Korea’s pine trees, and step to the front lines to build an ironclad defense system rather than shifting the burden to local governments. Hwang I-ju, Uljin County Mayor
With artificial spread via firewood and timber movement accounting for numerous recent new or recurring outbreaks, lawmakers and forest officials agree that stricter transport crackdowns and unified national containment strategies will decide whether South Korea’s remaining pine forests survive the decade.
