ROK sets aside funds for DMZ Peace Park

According to Yonhap:

The government set aside 40.2 billion won (US$37.3 million) in next year’s budget proposal for a project calling for the establishment of a peace park in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border with North Korea, according to the draft budget Thursday.

The DMZ peace park project is one of President Park Geun-hye’s outreach projects to North Korea. She first unveiled the vision during her visit to the United States in May and formally proposed the project on August. But questions persist about its possibility due to tensions with Pyongyang.

According to the government’s budget proposal, which is subject to changes and requires approval from the National Assembly, the unification ministry’s total budget was set at 1.34 trillion won, up 20.9 billion won or 1.6 percent from this year’s budget.

Of the 40.2 billion won set aside for the peace park project, 24 billion was designated for use in removing landmines strewn throughout the DMZ, while the rest was allocated for research and other purposes, according to the budget proposal.

The budget for humanitarian assistance to North Korea fell slightly to 680.2 billion won from this year’s 724 billion won. But officials said the decline is because of a fall in prices for rice and fertilizer and the government plans to keep the amount of aid at this year’s level of 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer.

Read the full story here:
S. Korea sets aside 40.2 billion won for DMZ peace park project
Yonhap
2013-9-26

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