Okuseok Gijang County Governor: "Typhoon Adds to Troubles, Secondary Aid Must Go to Disaster Areas"

'Second Disaster Relief Fund Selective Payment' Government Urged to Include 'Maysak' and 'Haishen' Affected Areas and Residents Without Fail

Oh Gyuseok, Mayor of Gijang County, Busan.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] “Aren't these two typhoons this time a disaster that adds insult to injury and causes even more suffering?”

On the 8th, Oh Gyu-seok, the mayor of Gijang County, stated that the government’s second selective disaster relief fund must include the areas and residents affected by Typhoon No. 9 ‘Maysak’ and Typhoon No. 10 ‘Haishen’, which swept through the Yeongnam region.

Regarding natural disasters, currently, basic local governments can provide support only for general houses: 2 million KRW for house flooding, 8 million KRW for partial house damage, and 16 million KRW for total house destruction.

Self-employed business owners such as sashimi restaurants cannot receive support from basic local governments, but up to 2 million KRW can be supported from the Busan City Disaster Relief Fund.

Mayor Oh asserted, “For natural disasters, national treasury support is only available if the affected area is declared a special disaster zone or if the damage amount exceeds 4.2 billion KRW. If the damage is less than 4.2 billion KRW or if self-employed business owners have no place to rely on, only city funds can provide support, but metropolitan local governments are also facing financial difficulties and pressure.”

He added, “Due to the COVID-19 situation, the finances of basic local governments have been depleted, making it very difficult to secure restoration budgets. Not only social disasters but also natural disasters should be included in the government’s second selective disaster relief fund.”

This was a call to the government to prepare livelihood measures for the areas and residents affected by the consecutive Typhoon No. 9 and No. 10.

On the 7th, Gijang County, under an emergency directive from the mayor, cut all budgets for projects, festivals, events, education, and subsidies that cannot be executed by the end of December this year due to COVID-19.

A Gijang County official stated, “We plan to scrape the barrel and secure additional resources urgently to secure a supplementary budget of about 10 billion KRW for typhoon damage restoration.”

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