= Total amount of $37.7 million USD current subsidies paid to parties in 2018 =

The National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC) provided about 10.6 billion won ($9.4 million USD) of national current subsidies for the fourth quarter of 2018 to seven political parties on November 15. That means that parties have received a total of 42.5 billion won ($37.7 million USD) in national current subsidies this year. 

Details of Subsidy Payments for the Fourth Quarter of 2018

Unit: Korean Won (USD)

* US dollar amounts in brackets are approximate. 

According the Political Funds Act Article 27, the system for distributing national current subsidies begins with 50 percent of the total amount of subsidies available equally divided between political parties that have a negotiation body in the National Assembly comprised of 20 party members or more at the time of the payment of subsidies. Next, parties with between five and 20 seats receive five percent of the total funds each. 

In addition two percent of the total amount is allocated to political parties with no seats or less than five seats in the National Assembly that meet certain requirements, for example a certain percentage of votes in the most recent elections.

After distributing based on the aforementioned criteria, half of the remaining subsidies are distributed to political parties represented in the National Assembly according to the number of seats each party has. The other half is distributed based on the percentage of votes obtained by political parties in the 20th National Assembly election.  ​