A woman on Nov. 2 pays tributes to those who died in the Itaewon incident in front of Exit 1 of Itaewon Station in Seoul's Yongsan-gu District. (Yonhap News)

The government will speed up payment of its pledged financial support for the families of the foreign nationals who died in the Itaewon incident.  

Domestic news media including KBS on Nov. 3 said officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters that they agreed with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to take the necessary steps to possibly cut the processing time for the payments from a week to three days.  

Families of the deceased can apply for the funds by visiting the Itaewon Global Village Center, which is run by Yongsan-gu Office to help foreign nations, or contacting officials from their respective embassies, Seoul city government or ministry.

Each family is eligible to receive up to KRW 15 million for funeral expenses and KRW 20 million as consolation money, the same amounts for those of Koreans who died in the incident.

Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk told a briefing, "A combined four bodies have been transported so far," adding, "The government intends to do its best until the last foreign national who died in the incident is returned to their homeland and rests in peace."

Of the 156 who died in the incident, 26 were foreign nationals: five from Iran, four from China, four from Russia, two from the U.S., two from Japan and one each from France, Australia, Norway, Austria, Vietnam, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka. 

dusrud21@korea.kr