South Korea’s defense ministry is seeking a sharp increase in next year’s budget to improve its fighting capability due to tensions over the deadly sinking of a warship blamed on North Korea, an official said yesterday.
Ministry of National Defense officials have agreed to request about 31.6 trillion won (US$25.8 billion) next year to introduce new weapons and improve military hardware and welfare facilities for troops, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
The amount would represent a 6.9 percent increase from the 29.5 trillion won budgeted this year, which was a 3.6 percent increase from the year before, he added.
“The Cheonan incident was reflected” in the ministry’s request for a higher budget, the official said.
An international investigation concluded last month that North Korea torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan near the tense Korean sea border in late March, killing 46 sailors. North Korea flatly denies it launched an attack and has warned any punishment would trigger war.
The official declined to elaborate on what kinds of new weapons the ministry wants to introduce with the proposed budget because it still needs final approval from the defense minister and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified military official, reported that the ministry is pushing to bolster its defense capability to cope with limited warfare with North Korea.
Also yesterday, General Han Min-koo, the nominee to the become the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that he would propose a 7 percent increase in the defense budget.
Earlier this week, North Korea threatened to take unspecified military action against South Korea and the US, accusing the allies of deploying heavy weapons to the border truce village of Panmunjom. The US-led UN Command on Tuesday dismissed the allegation.
North Korea also said on Monday it must bolster its nuclear capability, citing hostile US policy and military threats, though the US has repeatedly said it has no intention of attacking the regime.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because no peace treaty was signed at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. The US stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against the North.
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