South Korea will send record-high levels of overseas assistance to earthquake-ravaged Japan.

The scale of aid, when including emergency relief supplies, will exceed the previous high of 12-million dollars that South Korea sent to Haiti in January 2010.

The South Korean government has sent a total of 50-million dollars to Southeast Asia after a tsunami struck the region in December 2004. The fund was distributed among Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

A South Korean government official said that a highly substantial budget will be needed to assist Japan’s recovery efforts and that the government will apply for a use of reserve funds as the emergency relief budget for Japan is running short.

Some 200-thousand dollars had been set for emergency relief towards developed nations, but three-quarters of that amount has already been used to help New Zealand, which also suffered an earthquake in February.