외교부, 위안부 문제 관련 예산 첫 편성
The foreign ministry in Seoul has released more details about its budget for 2019, which was passed last week.
It includes a new fund... dedicated to raising global awareness of the Korean women sexually enslaved by Japan during the Second World War.
And more broadly, it will address sexual violence around the world.
Our Park Hee-jun has more. For the first time, South Korea's foreign ministry has set aside a separate budget to be spent on highlighting, on a global scale, the issue of wartime sexual slavery.
The victims of this practice by Japan during World War Two are commonly referred to as "comfort women."
Up to 200 thousand of them were Korean.
In broader terms,... the funding is to promote international cooperation on sexual violence in regions of conflict.
But a foreign ministry official told reporters on Tuesday that it's also connected to the issue of the comfort women.
The foreign ministry has set aside 440-thousand U.S. dollars,... which will be used to organize forums and seminars to discuss how to protect women in troubled parts of the world,... and to raise global awareness of the comfort women.
According to the official,... the government has also set up next year's budget to support the diplomatic and denuclearization-related activities surrounding the Korean Peninsula.
And so 88-thousand dollars will be added to its fund for the peace process and the unification of the Peninsula,... bringing it to a total of some 796-thousand dollars.
The fund to support cooperation and exchange with ASEAN, South Asia and Asia-Pacific countries... will see a 48-percent hike to 2-point-1 million dollars.
Next year's plan also aims to effectively respond to accidents in other countries.
For that, the ministry will spend 10-point-4 million dollars,... 6-point-4 percent more than last year, to protect Korean citizens staying overseas.
South Korea will also spend 4-point-2 percent more next year on official development assistance,... for a total of 714-million dollars -- to fulfill its responsibilities in the international community.
But the budget for the protection of South Korea's territorial sovereignty,... essentially for the protection of Dokdo Island, has been reduced by 265-thousand dollars to around 5-point-5 million.
The budget for networking by diplomats will also be cut by 13-point-6 percent to around 6-million dollars,... to make spending more transparent.
In total,... the ministry's budget for the year 2019 will see an overall increase of 3-point-7 percent to more than 2 billion dollars.
Park Hee-jun, Arirang News.
