Ministry of National Defense Pays Retirement Benefits to 903 Retired Military Personnel

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo is delivering a keynote speech at the 2019 Year-end All-Army Senior Commanders Meeting held at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 4th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yang Nak-gyu]The Ministry of National Defense announced on the 2nd that it will pay retirement benefits totaling approximately 1.229 billion KRW to 903 individuals who retired before December 31, 1959, but did not receive their retirement payments.

The Ministry of National Defense formed the 'Retirement Benefit Payment Deliberation Committee' on March 25, 2019, and held the first committee meeting in September of the same year. Up until last month, a total of five committee meetings were held. The 903 individuals approved for payment by the committee will receive an average retirement benefit of 1.85 million KRW per person.

The Ministry is also guiding the payment procedures through a 'visiting service' for those who have not applied for their retirement benefits. To identify those who have not applied, the Ministry received and verified a list of 49,413 registered veterans who retired from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, confirming that 7,780 individuals are eligible to apply. The Ministry first provided payment procedure guidance to 483 surviving individuals and has paid retirement benefits to 72 of them.

The Ministry plans to accept retirement benefit applications until June 2021 and carry out payment operations until 2025. According to the Public Officials Pension Act enacted in 1960, soldiers who were discharged after 1960 received retirement benefits, but those discharged before that year were excluded.

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