• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.5-22
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• 2000

Manufacturing industry in Chonbuk region has experienced relatively consistent increase during period 1975-1999. The importance of labor-intensive sectors such as textiles and clothing, wood and furniture, and food and drink, which had been traditionally major sectors in this region, has declined over the same period. On the other hand, the shares of more complex sectors like automobile, chemistry, communication equipment, and other machinery have gone up. The structural change of Chonbuk manufacturing industry, with increasing diversity, follows the national trend of industrial development, based on national industrial policies. but the speed and level of the change has been slow and low in terms of the national standard of manufacturing development, especially with the weak development of high technology industry. In Chonbuk, the spatial distribution of manufacturing industry has shown a high degree of concentration. Although spatial concentration is apparent in the central area including the cities of Chonju, Iksan, and Kunsan, new tendency towards industrial decentralization within this area has been found. The tendency means manufacturing development at the fringe of this area. There is another tendency towards industrial dispersion into the cities of Kimje and Jeongup close to this central area. The spatial dispersion of manufacturing industry has been accelerated in the form of increasing external investment. But despite the tendency of the spatial dispersion, the development of manufacturing industry in the rest of the region still remains a marked inferiority.