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| Rep. Cho Jeong-sik of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea announces the party's pledge for the April 15 general election to promote the country's culture and arts during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. The party's pledge came as the nation is still celebrating the Oscars success of director Bong Joon-ho's movie "Parasite." Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has pledged to introduce unemployment insurance for artists so they can continue their work without having to worry about financial constraints. The decision comes hot on the heels of Bong Joon-ho's recent success at the Oscars for "Parasite".
Financial uncertainty is a reality artists ― especially freelancers ― are faced with. Bong himself once said that he had suffered serious financial hardship until the release of his 2003 hit film "Memories of Murder," with his college friends bringing rice to him and his wife.
The DPK said it would introduce a Korean version of "intermittent," a French unemployment insurance system for artists and workers in the cultural sector, to provide an unemployment allowance so they can maintain a basic standard of living.
"We will support artists in difficult situations by revising the welfare acts for artists and introducing an unemployment system," Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, who heads the party's policy committee, said during a press conference at the National Assembly, Wednesday.
Cho said around 20,000 artists would receive 1.06 million won for their creative activities for an average of 5.5 months, with a total of 116 billion won required for the system.
In addition to the insurance program, it plans to allocate about 2.67 trillion won by 2024 to support for the culture and art sectors.
"The DPK will work to realize the country's goal of being the No. 1 country in the culture and art sectors where every citizen can enjoy a high quality of culture and arts," Rep. Cho said.
The party also envisioned a project creating a "Korea Contents Valley," a Korean version of the U.S.' Silicon Valley in the contents and movie sector.
