Compensation for Veterans' Sacrifices Must Balance Support and Honor

[Editor’s Note] Veterans deserve appropriate compensation and respect for their sacrifices. In recognition of June as National Veterans Month, Aju Business Daily has prepared a three-part series on honoring veterans. As of May, there are 25,040 surviving veterans from the Korean War and 159,540 from the Vietnam War. Given that many veterans are in their 80s and 90s, enhancing veterans' policies is an urgent issue.

To ensure appropriate compensation for the sacrifices made by veterans, policies must balance living support, honor, and the promotion of a culture of remembrance.
 
No Seung-yong, a professor at Seoul Women's University, stated in an interview on June 24, "Future veterans' policies must balance 'living support' and 'honoring their sacrifices.' While economic support is important, a culture that respects and remembers those who sacrificed for the nation must also be cultivated."
 
Since 2002, the government has provided a veterans' honor allowance to honor those who dedicated themselves to the nation. As of 2026, the monthly payment is 490,000 won. In addition to this, local governments provide an average of 263,000 won in veterans' allowances.
 
The role of local governments also needs to be expanded. Hwang Mi-kyung, a professor at Seoul Christian University, emphasized, "Local governments should pay more attention to the care of veterans and their families. They complement the role of the national government. The allowance system should be strengthened, and the involvement of city and district council members is necessary."
 
Support policies for the next generation also need to be carefully developed. Instead of providing uniform cash support to the children of veterans, opportunities for scholarships, psychological counseling, and participation in national record and honor inheritance projects should be expanded.
 
Professor No suggested, "In other countries, scholarship programs and leadership initiatives for veterans' descendants are operated to pass on the value of dedication to the nation to the next generation. We also need to systematically expand scholarship programs for veterans' descendants and capacity development programs for families of national merit."
 
Ryu Hyun-sook, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Public Administration, noted, "There are quite a few memorial facilities across regions. It is also the role of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to inform and pass on the history and assets of veterans to future generations," adding that the ministry should actively promote its work.
 
The Ministry of Veterans Affairs has established a 'Comprehensive Veterans Culture Portal' to provide various videos, exhibitions, and educational materials related to veterans' culture, which were previously scattered across different agencies. The portal has been in service since May 11.
 
Previously, information about national cemeteries, including the Seoul and Daejeon National Cemeteries, as well as the Independence Hall and Provisional Government Memorial Hall, was dispersed across multiple websites, making it inconvenient for users to find related materials.
 
The portal allows users to search for veterans' culture materials by type, theme, era, and region, providing integrated access to related content. Users can also check detailed information about the materials through links to the respective agency websites.
 
Additionally, the portal features a comprehensive search function and offers various information about veterans' culture exhibitions, events, and education, along with an AI recommendation feature for users' interests.
 
Kwon Oh-eul, Minister of Veterans Affairs, stated, "The Comprehensive Veterans Culture Portal is an integrated platform that connects scattered records and content of veterans, allowing citizens to conveniently search for and access veterans-related information without time and space constraints. We plan to continuously expand services so that citizens can engage with and utilize veterans' culture content in their daily lives."