South Korea allocates $266.7B for 2024-2028 defense budget

By Emir Yildirim

ISTANBUL (AA) - South Korea’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday the mid-term defense blueprint for 2024-2028 and promised to spend 350 trillion won ($266.7 billion) within five years to maintain and strengthen capabilities against North Korea’s increasing military threats, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

It includes defense reinforcement schemes; advanced missile interceptor systems; development of the Cheongung-II tactical surface-to-surface missiles; deployment of additional spy satellites, KSS-III Batch-II submarines, M-SAM-III and the L-SAM-II systems; and the development of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) shells.

The ministry allocates $86.9 billion for defense capabilities and ($179.1 billion to maintain troops, equipment and facilities, according to the blueprint.

The ministry will increase its annual budget from $43.4 billion to $45.7 billion next year and is scheduled to increase it by $3 billion increments over five years.

As for the force structure, the plan is to keep the number of active-duty military personnel at its current level of 500,000, since the low birth rate in South Korea has triggered concerns about a decline in resources allocated to military personnel.

For the five-year period, the average annual increase rate of defense spending is at 7%.

A defense spending plan, however, is subject to parliamentary approval.