Emeritus Professor So Sun-yeol has published a scholarly work on the structure and development of modern agriculture in Jeonbuk, Modern Agricultural History of Jeonbuk (Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) University Press). This book serves as the definitive volume following his earlier works  Research on Modern Regional Agricultural History and Market Economic History of Jeonbuk.

The book asks and prompts reflection on why, during the Japanese colonial period, Jeonbuk remained the poorest despite technological advances, and why this condition persisted after liberation without being resolved.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I (Structure and Development) covers typologies of the landlord system, Japanese landlords and Korean tenant farmers; Part II (Change and Character) addresses the coexistence of advanced and backward technologies and the transformation of tenant disputes into anti-Japanese movements; and Part III (Dissolution and Entrenchment) develops around the central issue of Jeonbuk's backwardness.

It allows readers to fully understand whether Jeonbuk's relative backwardness, which became entrenched through changes from the modern to contemporary periods, is an inevitable result of structural policies in Korean society or the outcome of actions by the various actors within the local community.

Emeritus Professor So Sun-yeol said, "I published this book from a perspective that does not indulge in complacency but grants autonomous value to the region," and added, "I hope it will serve as an impetus for modern regional studies."

Meanwhile, Professor So graduated from the Department of Agricultural Economics at JBNU, earned a master's degree at Seoul National University Graduate School, and received his PhD from Kyoto University in Japan. He served as president of the Korean Association for Community Studies and the Society of Animal Husbandry Management, and later chaired the Agricultural History Society. His publications include Research on Modern Regional Agricultural History; Market Economic History of Jeonbuk (co-authored); The Formation and Transformation of the Modern Port City Gunsan (co-authored); and Agricultural Technology and Korean Civilization (co-authored), among around ten other books.