The National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC) provided about 10.7 billion won (approx. $8.8 million USD) of national current subsidies for the third quarter of 2019 to seven political parties on August 14.

Details of Subsidy Payments for the Third Quarter of 2019 

Unit: Korean Won (USD) 

* US dollar amounts in brackets are approximate. There are eight Independent seats and three vacant seats

National Current Subsidies are subsidies distributed by the state to political parties every quarter and are distributed on criteria based on the number of seats the party has in the National Assembly and the number of votes it received in the last election on the payment date. The payments are made on the 15th of February, May, August and November. The criteria are as follows:  

First 50% of the total amount of subsidies available 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 according to the number of seats each party has. The other half is distributed based on the number of votes obtained by political parties in the 20th National Assembly election.  

Parties that receive National Current Subsidies should spend at least 30% of the total they receive on a policy research institute, at least 10% on the development of women in politics and at least 10% should be distributed to the Si/Do party offices.  

The national current subsidy system was initially introduced to subsidize political parties’ operating costs in order to protect and nurture political parties. However, the types of national current subsidies have been diversified by the addition of election-related subsides, subsidies for nominating female candidates and subsidies for to support disabled candidates. 

The NEC said it will provide information to political parties to ensure that subsidies provided from the state budget are carried out legitimately and will thoroughly examine the details of their use through investigations into subsidy spending.