A Nobel Literature Award Country, But Cut Budget for Overseas Korean Language Promotion?

Government Cuts 8.8%... Japanese Ethnic Classes Slashed 45.2%
Kim Moon-soo: "Contrary to Public Common Sense... Increase in National Assembly Deliberation"

Assemblyman Kim Moon-soo

Amid growing international interest in Korean literature and culture following author Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature win, criticism has arisen over the government's decision to reduce the budget for next year's Korean language promotion projects.

The "Overseas Korean Language Promotion" project is a policy-driven initiative aimed at enhancing the status of Korea and the Korean language by supporting the adoption of Korean in formal education curricula in other countries.

According to Kim Moon-soo, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea representing Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gokseong, and Gurye-gab in Jeollanam-do, the government has allocated 19.274 billion KRW for the 2025 "Overseas Korean Language Promotion" project. This represents an 8.8% reduction compared to the 21.134 billion KRW budget for 2024.

Looking at the detailed projects, support for "Japanese Ethnic Classes" saw the largest decrease at 45.2%. The number of supported schools dropped from 170 to 88. Funding for the Kansai region educators' conference and the establishment of a web-based ethnic education resource center was also cut by nearly half. These projects support Korean language, literature, and history classes, as well as homeland training for ethnic Korean students attending local schools in Japan to strengthen their ethnic identity, but the budget was drastically reduced from 560 million KRW to 307 million KRW.

Other projects also faced cuts: ▲Support for Korean language education institutions in the CIS region decreased by 18.5%, ▲Dispatch of Korean language teachers to overseas local schools was cut by 18.3%, and ▲Support for the adoption of Korean language classes in overseas elementary and secondary schools was reduced by 5.0%.

Rep. Kim stated, "Following the Korean Wave and the Nobel Prize in Literature win, interest in our literature and language overseas is expected to grow even more, yet the Yoon Seok-yeol administration has slashed the Korean language promotion budget. This government is out of touch with the common sense of the people." He added, "I will work to ensure the budget is increased during the National Assembly's review process."

Meanwhile, as of December 31 last year, Korean language classes were established in 2,154 schools across 47 countries at the elementary and secondary levels overseas.

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