Korea Post President Son Seung-hyun speaks during a press conference at the Korea Press Center, Wednesday. Courtesy of Korea Press Center

By Baek Byung-yeul

Korea Post will transform around 400 post offices that are over 35 years old into new offices equipped with community spaces for local residents, according to the head of the state-run agency, Wednesday. They will also serve as support centers for business startups to help achieve balanced development in provincial areas.

"The population decline outside the Seoul metropolitan region is so severe that we see the extinction of these regions at this rate. For the balanced development of each region, we came up with an idea to utilize Korea Post's nationwide network. There are around 500 post offices that were built over 35 years ago and we plan to redevelop about 400 of them over the next five years until 2027," Son Seung-hyun, president of Korea Post, said during a press conference in Seoul.

Furthermore, Son said Korea Post would design post offices to suit the characteristics of each region.

"Old post offices have the same red brick design. Away from the traditional design, we will put local color on the newly built post offices. For instance, a post office in Yeongwol County in Gangwon Province will be built in the shape of an apple because the region is famous for delicious apples. Gyeongju, the ancient capital, will have a hanok (traditional Korean house) style while a post office in Yangyang County, famous among younger people for surfing, will be built in the shape of a surfboard," the postal president said.

The agency said it also decided to reconstruct the old post offices in consideration and for the convenience of visitors. Due to insufficient facility investment in these post offices, there have been a lot of inconveniences and safety concerns. Son added that the decision also contains a willingness to be reborn as a state institution that provides the best public services.

Korea Post will allocate a budget of around 100 billion won ($74 million) to reconstruct around 50 old post offices next year.

To strengthen its role as a state-run agency, Korea Post will also beef up welfare services for the disadvantaged.

"Still, there are many people in our society in welfare blind spots. To improve this, we have launched our Welfare Registered Mail service in Yeongdo District, Busan, this July. When local governments send registered mail to households that need welfare services, postmen not only deliver the registered mail, but also check the households' living conditions on the checklist and give feedback to the local governments. Then, the governments will decide if the households need to be provided welfare services," Son said.

The welfare registered mail service has been conducted in eight local areas including Seoul's Seodaemun District. In cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea Post expects the service can be expanded nationwide from next year.