hankyoreh

On Aug. 29

The South Korean government set a 43.1177 trillion won (US $38.4 billion) defense budget on Aug. 19 to be submitted to the National Assembly for next year.

The 6.9% increase from the 2017 national defense budget of 40.3347 trillion won (US $35.9 billion) is the largest since the 7.1% increase in 2009. More recently, the rate of increase in defense spending has stood at 4.2% for 2013, 4.0% for 2014, 4.9% for 2015, 3.6% for 2016, and 4.0% for 2017.

The jump is being seen as reflecting the Moon administration’s intent to actively invest in defense capabilities. The governance planning advisory committee, which served as the administration’s transitional committee, announced in May that it planned to raise the rate of increase in the defense budget to the range of 7–8% from 3–4% under the previous government.

The defense budget plan, which is to be submitted to the National Assembly on Sept. 1, includes defense capability improvement spending of 13.4825 trillion won (US $12.0 billion), up 10.5% from this year, and military strength management spending of 29.6352 trillion won (US $26.4 billion), up 5.3%. The defense capability improvement spending includes a budget of 4.3359 trillion won (US $3.9 billion) in response to the North Korean nuclear and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats – a rise of fully 13.7% from 2017. The Ministry of National Defense said it planned to “build a ‘3K system’ consisting of a kill chain, Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), and Korean Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) by the first half of 2020.”

To hasten the building of its 3K system, the military is purchasing or developing five spy satellites (by 2023), high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft, long-range air-to-surface Taurus cruise missiles, Ballistic Missile Early Warning Radar-2 systems, and long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAM). It is also planning performance improvements to its Cheolmae-2 and Patriot (PAC-2) missiles as part of a medium-range surface-to-air missile (M-SAM) project.

For KMPR, it is planning the purchase of special operations grenade launchers (six rounds, 40mm) to be carried by special forces and performance improvements to the CH/HH-47D helicopter for transporting special forces units. An additional 1.6189 trillion won (US $1.4 billion, up 22.4%) was earmarked for preparations against local provocations, 6.3772 trillion won (US$5.7 billion, up 7.9%) to reinforce preparations for full-scale war and independent defense capabilities, and 2.8754 trillion won (US$2.6 billion, up 3.3%) to promote defense R&D and the defense industry.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs also included a large-scale increase in compensation for national persons of merit for its 2018 budget plan. The special fund for surviving patriots from the independence movement is to be raised to 1,575,000–2,325,000 won (US $1,400–2,070) per month from its current 1,050,000-1,550,000 won (US $930–1,380), while the honorary allowance for veterans of merit is to be increased to 300,000 won (US$270) a month from 220,000 won (US$200).

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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