South Korea's sovereign debt hit a record high last year, surpassing one-point-six quadrillion won.

According to the government's 2018 settlement of accounts approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday, state assets amounted to two-point-12 quadrillion won and liabilities reached one-point-68 quadrillion won last year.

Nearly 56 percent of the liabilities or 940 trillion won is the amount the government would need to cover government employee and military pension payments should the pension funds be depleted. 

The Finance Ministry said the liabilities for pension payments expanded by more than 94 trillion won last year, mainly due to low interest rates that were applied in the calculation.

The central and provincial governments' actual debts reached 680-point-seven trillion won in 2018, up 20-point-five trillion won from a year earlier.

The debt growth is the slowest since 2009 and the debt accounted for 38-point-two percent of the nation's gross domestic product(GDP), which is the same as in 2017.