hankyoreh

President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday that South Korea’s military will try to play a bigger role in global security and peace as part of an effort to repay the international community for its help in the fight against the invading North Korea six decades ago.
“The military of the Republic of Korea should further develop into ‘international armed forces’ to contribute to the world security and peace,” President Lee said in a speech to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the recapture of Seoul from North Korea by U.N. allied forces on Sept. 28, 1950.
About 5,000 people, including representatives from U.N. allies that fought for South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, participated in this ceremony.
　　
Government agency inflates job creation results
South Korea’s government has been criticized for trying to display full-time staff who have been working more than 10 years at civic organizations as fruits of its job creation projects.
The National Association of Sexual Violence Counseling Agencies said Tuesday that the agencies receiving aid from the government received official documents from local governments requesting information about its staff members in September.
The government’s plan is to input all of the data about jobs created under its new job creation program into one national system.
“Although our agency has been open more than 10 years and throughout that time has received partial aid from the government, they are now trying to designate us new employees as a part of their job creation measures,” said a representative of the agencies. “It is an attempt to inflate the results of its project.”

S. Korea’s 2011 budget sees 5.7 percent increase
The Lee Myung-bak administration announced Tuesday that it wants to increase its budget spending by 5.7 percent in 2011 to maintain growth momentum and better help low and middle-income earners.
The budget proposal calls for 309.6 trillion Won ($269.4 billion) to be spent overall, up from 292.8 trillion Won set aside for 2010, although total expenditure growth will be smaller than projected state tax revenue that can improve overall fiscal health, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) said.
The Defense Ministry asked for a nearly 6 percent budget increase for 2011 to 31.2 trillion Won ($21.7 billion) to strengthen its military capacity after the sinking of the Cheonan. This year’s defense budget rose 3.6 percent from last year.
　　
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