Korea to boost tsunami aid to $50 mil.

Jon · Korean Citizen Joined: Mar 19, 2004 Posts: 524

As hungry and sick survivors in tsunami-hit areas awaited help from a worldwide multinational aid operation, South Korea finally decided to boost its assistance to at least $50 million to save its international reputation.

While Japan, the United States and other nations responded by putting in billions of dollars and resources into the aid effort, South Korea came up with an initial overseas emergency aid budget offering of a meager $600,000 which was later pushed up to $5 million.

On the brink of being ridiculed for what some critics called "pea-sized" aid, the government yesterday decided to up its ante at least 10 times.

Top government officials proposed a lump sum of $50 million to $60 million during a meeting headed by Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan just two days ahead of his trip to an international crisis summit in Jakarta.

Prime Minister Lee, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are among world leaders who will attend the ASEAN special summit this week to discuss distribution of more than $2 billion in pledged aid to tsunami victims.

Lee plans to announce South Korea's exact donation at the meeting.

"We can expect an approval up to $60 million," an official at the Foreign Ministry said. "The aid budget currently set is way below any international standards, and the government has already acknowledged that."

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters at the weekend that the government was considering raising its pledge of relief to $50 million, suggesting that the current level was far too low.

"It can be an option to provide financial aid over the next three years, not in a lump sum," he said.

But critics question what the figure should be for a country to keep its status in the global community, and what amount is right for Seoul as the 11th largest economy in the world.

South Korea's foreign emergency aid fund is a meager 0.06 percent of the nation's GDP, and it is criticized both at home and abroad for throwing in only what amounts to loose change in times of global need.

The United States, Japan, China and 41 other nations have pledged a combined $2 billion in aid.

The currently announced amount of $5 million puts South Korea in 22nd place in terms of total tsunami-aid funding, making it the smallest contributor from Northeast Asia, behind Taiwan with $5.25 million, $60 million from China and $500 million from Japan.

"Even China's $60 million is being criticized as it has one of the world's largest populations," a diplomatic source said. "The decision to put South Korea's funds to $50 million will at least help it to hold its head up in the region."

The United Nations said 1.8 million survivors desperately need food and water as dehydration, disease and hunger threaten to add to a disaster that has already claimed around 1,500 lives.

Tropical rains in Indonesia's northern Aceh province, which has more than half the known dead, and flooding in Sri Lanka have compounded the misery for survivors and created more problems for troops and aid workers trying to deliver relief.

Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said the government is considering sending a frigate to the disaster region to help recovery efforts.

The South Korean Red Cross sent a 13-member medical team yesterday to Aceh while a growing number of local rescue workers and volunteers have flown to tsunami-hit areas to join global relief efforts.

Prime Minister Lee plans to visit Sri Lanka, one of the hardest-hit areas, after the Jakarta meeting.

(bluelle@heraldm.com)

By Choi Soung-ah