South Korea’s Culture Ministry is significantly augmenting its budget for inter-Korean exchange programs related to culture and sports. 

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on Friday that it has earmarked five-point-six billion won in its budget for next year to assist inter-Korean projects on culture, arts and sports exchanges. 

Sports exchanges will take up the largest chunk of spending at around two-point-seven billion won, including five billion won for athletes with disabilities. 

The ministry had earmarked just over one billion won for similar projects this year. 

The number of projects that will benefit from the funds next year will also more than triple to 14 from this year’s four.