野 "Contingency Funds for Summit Diplomacy Exceed Main Budget... Will Demand Audit"

Foreign Minister: "Increase in Normal Diplomacy Due to Post-COVID-19"

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jeong Il-young pointed out on the 3rd that last year’s main budget for summit and prime minister diplomacy was 24.8 billion KRW, but the reserve fund exceeded the main budget with 32.8 billion KRW allocated.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol is talking with Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo at the Korea-Philippines Foreign Ministers' Meeting held last month at the Government Seoul Office Annex in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the same day, during the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Committee’s comprehensive policy questioning, Rep. Jeong said, "I will request an audit from the Board of Audit and Inspection and refuse the National Assembly’s post-approval of the related budget."

Rep. Han Min-soo from the same party also criticized, "Compared to the annual expenditure of about 19.6 to 26.7 billion KRW on summit and prime minister diplomacy from 2015 to 2022, last year’s budget allocation is excessively high."

In response, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol explained, "Last year was a special situation. During the COVID-19 period, face-to-face summit diplomacy was almost halted, but it significantly increased last year." He added, "After COVID-19, global inflation surged sharply, causing accommodation and airfare costs to rise dramatically."

He also explained, "For last year’s Group of Seven (G7) summit and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, invitations came shortly before the meetings, which led to heavy use of the reserve fund."

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