Pohang City Begins Payment of Compensation for Induced Earthquake Damage... Maximum Property Damage Amount 98.03 Million KRW

Selected 1,664 Cases in First Round from Sept to Oct Last Year ... 30 Cases Rejected and 5,399 Cases to be Reassessed Later

Director Go Won-hak of the Earthquake Special Support Team giving a briefing on the payment of the '1st Disaster Relief Fund' at the city hall briefing room.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] Pohang City announced on the 23rd that it will begin the payment process this week, including sending support fund decision letters to the affected households, following the '1st Damage Relief Payment' resolution by the Pohang Earthquake Damage Relief Deliberation Committee under the Prime Minister's Office.

Previously, the committee recognized 1,664 cases as priority victims out of 7,093 cases received from September 21 to the end of October last year, deciding to pay a total support fund of 4.2 billion KRW (an average of 3.18 million KRW per case, and an average of 2.65 million KRW after deducting previously paid amounts). Thirty cases were excluded from selection, and 5,399 cases will be re-examined later.

Specifically, after deducting previously paid amounts by type, the maximum support fund to be received was calculated as 1.12 million KRW for human damage and 98.03 million KRW for property damage.

In this support fund calculation, houses previously recognized as 'half-damaged' were reclassified as 'completely damaged' based on additional submitted materials, and there were also five cases where a high support fund exceeding 30 million KRW was granted after on-site investigations confirmed causality with the earthquake.

Among the 1,664 priority payment cases, about 73% are individual units in apartment complexes. It was found that 52% of the recognized victims had previously received disaster relief funds of 700,000 KRW or more immediately after the earthquake. Only 30 cases, or 1.7%, were found not to have causality with the earthquake among the cases under review.

Gowonhak, head of the Earthquake Special Support Team, said, "I thank the local members of the National Assembly, Pohang City Council, the Earthquake Countermeasures Committee, and the joint research team who worked together until this first earthquake damage support payment was made. We will do our best to ensure that the affected residents receive practical damage relief through continuous consultation and recommendations with the Earthquake Damage Relief Deliberation Committee."

A Pohang City official stated, "This recognition of victims and payment of support funds is significant as it is the first payment to affected residents under the special law enacted at the residents' urgent request, after Pohang endured tremendous suffering over the past three years due to the earthquake triggered by the national geothermal power project."

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