Ministry of Unification's Budget for Next Year Set at 1.5023 Trillion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The Ministry of Unification announced on the 3rd that it has set next year's budget for the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund and others at 1.5023 trillion won.

According to the Ministry of Unification, the 2022 budget approved at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the same day amounted to a total of 1.5023 trillion won, including 230.9 billion won from the general account and 1.2714 trillion won from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund. The general account consists of project expenses (167.4 billion won), personnel expenses (52.8 billion won), and basic expenses (10.6 billion won).

The Ministry of Unification explained that next year's budget plan focuses on supporting various inter-Korean cooperation projects for joint prosperity and restoration of ethnic homogeneity in line with the improvement of inter-Korean relations, consolidating social capabilities related to unification and peace, and spreading consensus on unification policies.

The Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund was increased by 2.1% compared to this year based on project expenses, excluding fund operating costs.

This fund is spent when inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects are actually carried out, so it is hardly used during tense phases in inter-Korean relations like this year.

The fund execution rate in 2020 was 3.7% based on project expenses, and this year's execution rate as of the end of November is 2.2%.

Looking at major projects, support for the settlement of North Korean defectors decreased by 2.7% compared to this year to 95.2 billion won, considering the reduced number of defectors entering due to the spread of COVID-19.

The Unification Information Resource Center, planned to be built in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do with a total project cost of 44.5 billion won by 2026, has newly allocated 3.28 billion won for next year.

Project expenses increased by 490 million won during the National Assembly review process, with increased projects including the Neutral Country Cooperation Forum on North Korea, metaverse unification education, and fake news monitoring.

Among these, the fake news monitoring project is mainly carried out by filtering distorted and fabricated information related to North Korea distributed through new media.

Additionally, 5.7 billion won was increased for the economic exchange cooperation insurance project, and 10.1 billion won for the economic exchange cooperation loan project. Although the budget size had been reduced due to poor progress in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, the budget for next year is planned at a scale similar to 2018, before the deterioration of inter-Korean relations, indicating an intention to prepare for changes in relations.

New projects for next year include support for inter-Korean exchanges by local governments (31.1 billion won) and infrastructure maintenance for the DMZ Peace Trail (6.4 billion won).

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