President Lee Jae Myung (L) shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during their summit at the Oval Office in the White House in Washington on Aug. 26, 2025
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- The foreign ministry seeks to boost next year's budgets for diplomacy with the United States and China while slashing development aid spending that was regarded as important by the previous government, its latest budget plan showed Friday.
The 2026 budget proposal, to be submitted to the National Assembly, calls for 3.6 trillion won (US$2.59 billion) in annual spending, down 15.8 percent from this year's 4.28 trillion won, according to a press release summarizing the plan.
The decrease came largely due to the 22 percent cut in the official development assistance (ODA) budget to 2.18 trillion won.
The ODA cut marks a shift from the upward trend of recent years under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol government, which had placed emphasis on foreign aid.
A ministry official cited efforts to reorganize the ODA budget in line with a review on the outcome and practicality of related projects.
The humanitarian assistance budget is also more than halved to 325.5 billion won, but the cut would bring it back to average levels seen before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the official said.
The ministry has set aside 7.5 billion won for North America affairs, mainly to support engagement with the U.S. at various levels, from high-level talks with President Donald Trump's administration and the U.S. Congress to outreach to academia.
The proposed budget for U.S. diplomacy marks an increase from this year's 5.1 billion won.
It raised the budget for the monitoring of U.S. economic trends to 1.4 billion won from 1 billion won in order to "enable swift responses to institutional changes that might impact South Korean companies," the ministry said.
For China diplomacy, it has allotted 1.1 billion won for next year, up by 500 million won this year.
The ministry also proposed spending 6.8 billion won in preparations for the envisioned summit with Central Asian nations.
The budget for dues to international organizations was cut to 681.8 billion won from 826.2 billion won due to a decline in contributions to the U.N., the ministry said.
By Kim Seung-yeon
Source: Yonhap News Agency
Foreign ministry seeks to raise U.S., China budgets for 2026 in Lee's diplomacy push
August 29, 2025
TURKISH CENTER for ASIA PACIFIC STUDIES