'Hacking Incident' Leads Foreign Ministry Cybersecurity Budget to Quadruple... ODA Cut for Second Straight Year

[Financial News] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which suffered an unprecedented hacking incident involving its diplomatic network, has quadrupled its cybersecurity budget for next year.
On the 1st, the ministry said it had drawn up a budget of 3.7033 trillion won for next year, up 2.4% from this year’s 3.6152 trillion won. Of that, the ministry’s cybersecurity budget will rise more than fourfold, from 3.8 billion won this year to 15.5 billion won next year.
A ministry official explained, "Following the cyberattack on the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) online education system, we reflected budgets to improve information protection systems and security monitoring systems, and to inspect and strengthen the ministry’s cybersecurity framework in order to enhance our ability to respond to cyber threats across the foreign affairs and security systems."
Earlier, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee of the National Assembly on the 19th of last month, "We later found out that the firewall had been left open," adding, "We are treating this as a very serious matter and are preparing the best possible countermeasures."
As a result of the hacking incident, information on diplomats and staff at diplomatic missions of South Korea, among others, was leaked in as many as 10,000 cases, and police are investigating. Investigators believe unidentified hackers took control of the diplomatic network server between April and May last year and accessed it repeatedly until February this year.
In addition, the ministry’s budget for facility maintenance and management at diplomatic missions of South Korea will rise by 3.6 billion won, from 6.1 billion won this year to 9.7 billion won next year. New allocations also include 2.3 billion won for preparations to chair the 2028 Group of Twenty (G20) summit and 1.5 billion won for strengthening AI diplomacy.
By contrast, the ministry’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget will be cut for a second consecutive year. The ministry’s ODA budget will fall by 21.9 billion won, or 1.0%, from 2.1861 trillion won this year to 2.1642 trillion won next year. After a reduction of more than 600 billion won this year, it will be cut again next year. The ministry said this is the first time its ODA budget has been reduced for two straight years.
The impact of President Lee Jae-myung’s repeated criticism of how ODA projects are run was significant. He has said of the annual ODA budget, which amounts to several trillion won, that "there are many projects that do not make sense" and ordered a full review. As a result, some KOICA projects are being consolidated and underperforming projects are being restructured.
[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter