S. Korean government seeks to raise defense budget for next year by 4.6%; to counter N. Korean ...

S. Korean government seeks to raise defense budget for next year by 4.6%; to counter N. Korean threats, support soldiers

내년 국방예산 4.6% 늘린 57.1조...'담대한 구상' 대북 민생협력에는 7천500억원

While there are plans to cut government spending next year,... the government still seeks to raise defense budget... to better counter North Korean threats and support enlisted soldiers.
The unification ministry decided to cut spending for the first time in five years.
Here's Bae Eun-ji with a breakdown of the digits.
The South Korean government seeks to increase its defense budget for next year,... by around 4-point-6 percent... with a focus on countering North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
The defense ministry said Tuesday that it has proposed a budget of around 42-point-3 billion U.S. dollars... up from this year's 40-point-4 billion.
The ministry plans to spend a lot of that on running its military forces almost 30 billion dollars.
This is 5-point-8 percent more than this year,... as the South Korean government announced it is to increase the monthly salary of enlisted soldiers.
Also, the defense ministry plans to allocate around 12-point-7 billion dollars to strengthen defense capabilities, such as buying new weapons systems.
This is up 2-percent from this year.

"While creating the budget, we focused on advancing the "three-axis" defense system... that consists of Kill Chain, Korea Air and Defense Missile System, and Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation plan. We plan to spend 3-point-9 billion dollars to strengthen these systems."

The ministry also plans to spend 4-point-9 billion dollars on more military assets.
This includes mass production of its third batch of K2 tanks, a program to build a 3-thousand-ton Ulsan-class frigate, and procuring reserve combat ammunition.
Meanwhile, with South Korea as a whole tightening its belt with next year's budget,... the Unification Ministry plans to request around one billion dollars for next year around 160 million dollars less than this year.
A first budget proposal drop in five years.
Of the total, it seeks to spend about 550 million dollars for inter-Korean humanitarian cooperation.
Both the defense and unification ministries will submit their budget plans to the National Assembly for approval on Friday.

Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.

#defense_budget #SouthKorea #Arirang_News

2022-08-30, 22:00 (KST)

[lastChang]

China 🇨🇳 started an *arms race* in the entire Indo-Pacific region.
- It must be careful what it wishes for.