This country case study has been financed by the OECD Development Centre, in partnership with Korean authorities, for the preparation of its Rural Development Policy in Perspective. The collectivization process in agriculture led to disappointing economic results and to severe food crises at the end of the 1970s. The difficulty in developing economic diversification prompted the government to engage in a radical policy shift, the Doï Moï, and to launch the renovation of the economy with a move towards a market-oriented economy. For long, rural development policies did not exist, as such. A specific rural development strategy, going beyond the classic agricultural objectives, emerged in 2007 and translated into the New Rural Development Program (NTP-NRD). The program put emphasis on three elements: a willingness to mobilize rural communities, and thus to support local initiatives through public investments; the objective of limiting urban–rural disparities through multidimensional policies (economic and social); and strong commitment from the government at the different administrative levels. The country was able to adapt to the challenges of globalization, although the cost is rising in social and spatial inequalities. To deal with the growing costs of urbanization and the challenges of climate change, the long-standing tradition of top-down approaches will have to connect with necessary bottom-up processes.