The legislature Wednesday approved the 355.8 trillion won (US$341 billion) budget for fiscal 2014, including 30.2 billion won (US$28.7 million) for Park’s plan, which is 10 billion won less than requested by the Ministry of Unification which handles inter-Korean affairs. The fiscal year begins on Jan. 1.
Most of the money will be used to remove mines in inter-Korean border areas and buy plots for the envisioned peace park.
The Assembly’s ad hoc Committee on Budget & Accounts curtailed the budget for the proposal, citing the current situation on the Korean Peninsula.
“Progress in the project can be made only when an agreement is struck with North Korea and the United Nations. However, there has been little headway since President Park made the proposal,” the committee said.
Park proposed to make part of the DMZ a peace zone in a speech she delivered at the U.S. Congress during her visit to Washington in May last year. But it remains to be seen whether Park's plan will be realized as tensions persist on the peninsula.
The President renewed her proposal to establish a peace park in the heavily-fortified DMZ in her Liberation Day speech on Aug. 15.
"By turning the DMZ into a peace zone. I hope that our memories of war and threats of provocations that linger in our minds will be removed and that efforts to make the Korean Peninsula a land of trust, harmony and collaboration will be newly made," she said.
The buffer zone, which is four kilometers wide and 250 kilometers long, is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas remain technically at war as the Korean War ended in an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com