▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol signs a bill promulgating a revision to the Government Organization Act at the presidential office in Seoul on March 2, 2023. Under the revision, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs will be upgraded from the current sub-ministry level to full-fledged ministry status and a new sub-ministry-level agency will be created under the oversight of the foreign minister to support 7.5 million Koreans residing overseas. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

Yoon-govt reorganization

Yoon signs bill to upgrade veterans agency, establish overseas Koreans agency

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol signed a bill Thursday to upgrade the state veterans agency to a full-fledged ministry and to establish a new government agency for overseas Koreans.

The signing took place during a ceremony held at the presidential office with the attendance of some 50 people who were invited for their or their family members' service to the nation.

The bill promulgates a revision to the Government Organization Act under which the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs will be upgraded from the current sub-ministry level to full-fledged ministry status and a new sub-ministry-level agency will be created under the oversight of the foreign minister to support 7.5 million Koreans residing overseas.

"President Yoon said a nation's class depends on whom it remembers and stressed that the government will not forget under any circumstances those who answered the call of the Republic of Korea," the presidential office said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

On the establishment of the overseas Koreans agency, Yoon recalled it was a campaign promise as well as a promise he made to Korean residents during his overseas trips.

To mark the upgrade of the veterans ministry, 25 people were invited to the ceremony, including the son and granddaughter of a police official killed during a North Korean commando infiltration in 1968; the daughter of a Navy sailor killed in North Korea's 2010 torpedoing of a South Korean warship; and a relative of the revered Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun.

The people invited to mark the creation of the overseas Koreans agency included ruling People Power Party Rep. Kim Seok-ki for his active legislation on behalf of overseas Koreans and Lee Young-keun, a director at the Overseas Koreans Foundation.

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