Seoul City to Provide 1 Million Won 'Special Quarantine Support Fund' to Coin Karaoke Rooms

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 3rd that it will provide a "special quarantine support fund" of 1 million won each to coin karaoke rooms in the city that have been subject to assembly ban orders.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Seoul stated, "Considering the increasing number of business owners who are struggling to make a living due to the prolonged assembly ban order on coin karaoke rooms," and added, "We have decided to provide support funds, judging the losses caused by administrative orders as sacrifices for the public good."

From May 22, the city will provide the special quarantine support fund to small business owners who comply with the assembly ban administrative order on coin karaoke rooms, with fewer than five regular employees and average sales under 3 billion won. Seoul plans to operate this by reallocating the funds to its 25 autonomous districts for prompt execution. However, two karaoke rooms that were caught and reported for continuing operations during the assembly ban period will be excluded from the support.

The city announced that it plans to use the disaster management fund based on Article 75-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Framework Act on Disaster and Safety Management. It judged that coin karaoke rooms fall under small business owners facing economic difficulties due to the prolonged assembly ban order.

Applications for this special quarantine support fund can be submitted by each autonomous district starting from the 8th of this month. Payments will be made to applicants' bank accounts by the 31st. Business owners wishing to apply must visit the dedicated window in their respective autonomous district and submit the required documents.

Each autonomous district's dedicated window will also provide education on quarantine rules and the management method of electronic entry logs using QR codes to coin karaoke room operators who visit to apply for the support fund.

Seoul added, "In the future, if quarantine requirements within coin karaoke rooms are met, considering the spread of COVID-19 in the metropolitan area and after consulting with quarantine experts, we will review the possibility of changing the assembly ban order to an assembly restriction."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.