Coast Guard Cheong, First 2 Trillion Won Budget Draft for Next Year... Strengthening Safety Management in Coastal Waters

The Korea Coast Guard announced on the 5th that it has prepared a budget of 2.0331 trillion won for 2025 and submitted it to the National Assembly. This marks the first time in 14 years since the 2011 budget reached 1 trillion won that the budget has exceeded 2 trillion won.

By major sectors, the budget includes 560.5 billion won for maritime sovereignty protection, 112.2 billion won for establishing a maritime safety network, 21.5 billion won for maritime law and order establishment, and 27 billion won for marine environment conservation. Next year's budget focuses on eradicating crimes that infringe on people's livelihoods and strengthening safety management in coastal waters.

As a key project, 320 million won has been allocated for the design and construction of medium-sized patrol vessels to strengthen crackdowns on illegal fishing by foreign vessels. Until now, illegal foreign fishing boats mainly used small 10-meter boats for evasion, causing difficulties in arrests and ensuring safety, with Coast Guard personnel sometimes injured during suppression operations.

Coast Guard Headquarters building
[Photo by Coast Guard Headquarters]

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The Coast Guard also significantly increased the budget for coastal safety network management to enable rapid rescue operations in coastal waters. With a budget of 730 million won, the number of nationwide rescue base police stations will be increased from 26 to 33. Additionally, 220 million won has been allocated for replacing communication equipment used in underwater rescue operations, and 910 million won for replacing outdated diving suits.

Furthermore, to strengthen response capabilities for coastal incidents and accidents, 3.88 billion won has been allocated this year to replace one outdated search and rescue helicopter, 3.8 billion won for eight aging coastal rescue boats at police stations, and 4.4 billion won for eight old rescue boats for rescue teams.

To expand maritime law enforcement services, the budget also includes funds for establishing the Gangneung Coast Guard Station, building an XR (Extended Reality) training center, securing convenience facilities for citizens at nationwide civil service offices, and improving the environment of aging police stations to be more citizen-friendly.

The Coast Guard has also allocated budgets for drug enforcement equipment to eradicate drug crimes at sea, including 100 million won for underwater drones and 320 million won for CCTV video analysis programs, and increased the reward for drug crime reports from 5 million won to 60 million won.

Additionally, 280 million won has been allocated for the design of infrastructure for the Coast Guard Satellite Center, which can analyze satellite information, and 500 million won for basic data on MDA (Maritime Domain Awareness) to analyze security threat factors of foreign-flagged vessels entering domestic ports, including their criminal records.

Kim Jong-wook, Commissioner of the Korea Coast Guard, said, "Once next year's budget is finalized, our response capabilities in various fields such as maritime safety and law enforcement will be significantly strengthened. We will strive to protect our seas more safely and guarantee the livelihoods and leisure activities of our citizens."

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