By Kim Da-ye
The losses in unfulfilled economic opportunities and public benefits from the idling ground used for graves amount up to 1.46 trillion won a year, a government-funded think tank said Friday.
Kim Kyung-rae of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), wrote in the “Health-welfare Policy Forum” monthly that each 30-square-meter private grave costs the nation 36,780 annually. The losses also only accumulate as graves are bound not to be used for productive activities.
Kim claims that the cost for a private grave would mount up to more than 22 million won in 60 years, while a grave in a cemetery is estimated to cost 12,260 won a year and 735,600 won in 60 years.
As of 2009, as much as 284 square kilometers or 0.3 percent of Korea’s entire land were registered as burial grounds.
The government introduced in 2001 a law limiting the space for a private grave to 30 square meters and that for a grave in the cemetery to 10 square meters, hoping to encourage cremation over burial and promote charnel facilities over burial grounds.
The same law allows a grave to be maintained for 15 years, the “standard burial ground usage period.” It can be extended three times to a maximum 60 years.
Despite such limits on the burial period and space the economic and public losses from burial grounds will continue as graves made before Jan. 13, 2001 are not affected by the law.
As of 1999, a total of 1,007 square kilometers of land _ nearly half of Jeju Island _ was being used for millions of burials. It still costs 1.23 trillion won a year.
Between 2000 and 2009, about 1.2 million graves were made, representing a loss of 226 billion won a year. The combined figure of the two comes to 1.46 trillion won.
According to the 2010 data from Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, forests and fields _ where most graves are _ could cost up to 2.68 million won per a square meter, compared to the highest price of a square-meter of farmland being 2.26 million won.
A square meter of wooded land can yield a public value of 1.151 won and the economic value of 75 won a year, when one considers many benefits the forests provide including purifying air and water and preventing landslides.
But the country is showing progress. Between 2000 and 2007, the number of burials against the number of the dead decreased from 66.3 percent to 41.1 percent.
It also projects that the portion of cremations will grow from 68.4 percent in 2010 to 84.4 percent in 2030.
Kim suggests that the public should take the “natural burial” option or the government should tax relatives of the dead who opt for burials. Natural burial means burying cremated remains. With only 0.09 square meters of land being used, it costs as little as 300 won a year, Kim says.
“Burial practices show the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) phenomenon at its worst. It damages many people’s public interests,” says Kim. “Since burial grounds are prepared and, trees are removed, the government should ask individuals to take the responsibility for damaging public goods.”