= Total of $36.3 million USD provided to political parties in national current subsidies in 2019 = 

The National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC) provided about 10.8 billion Korean won (approx. $9.1 million USD) of national current subsidies for the fourth quarter of 2019 to seven political parties on November 15. This means that a total of 43.2 billion Korean won ($36.3 million USD) in national current subsidies have been provided to political parties this year. 

Details of Subsidy Payments for the Fourth Quarter of 2019

Unit: Korean Won (USD)

* US dollar amounts in brackets are approximate. There are eighteen Independent seats and five vacant seats

National current subsidies are distributed as stipulated in Article 27 of the Political Fund Act. According to the standards as of the date of distribution, first of all 50% of the total amount of subsidies available are equally divided between political parties that have a negotiation body made up of National Assembly members of the same political party (that requires the party to have at least 20 seats in the National Assembly). Next, parties with between five and 20 seats receive 5% of the total funds divided between them. 

In addition, 2% of the total shall be allocated to parties that have no seats or less than five seats but meet certain requirements, such as the number of votes in the most recent public official election.

After distributing based on the aforementioned criteria, half of the remaining subsidies are distributed to political parties represented in the National Assembly in proportion to the number of seats each party has. The other half is distributed in proportion to the number of votes obtained by political parties in the 20th National Assembly election.