NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki asked the National Assembly to promptly pass the government’s additional supplementary budget plan submitted today. The deputy minister emphasized that the key to supplementary budget is its timeliness and asked for a speedy review, given the desperate situation of the COVID-19 impacted population and the urgency of assistance. The government had presented to the lawmakers a supplementary budget plan amounting to 15 trillion won to finance a fourth round of disaster relief but the National Assembly still hasn’t set a review and processing schedule for the plan.

While a military cost sharing deal has been reached in principle, Admiral Philip Davidson of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command sent a letter to the U.S. Senate ahead of a Armed Services Committee hearing today to point out that a prolonged gap in defense cost sharing talks between the United States and South Korea is negatively impacting the readiness of the American forces in Korea. Admiral Davidson added that he hopes the negotiation would be finalized in the near future and the ROK-U.S. alliance is the key to maintaining the region’s security environment and responding to North Korean threats.