South Korea plans to spend 560 billion won (US$441.25 million) over the next five years to beef up its ability to fend off North Korean drones, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
The plan was included in South Korea’s midterm defense blueprint for 2023-2027 after North Korean drones crossed into South Korea in the first such intrusion since 2017.
The ministry earmarked the funds for four projects aimed at bolstering counterdrone capabilities, including an airborne laser to destroy drones and a jammer to neutralize smaller devices.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The blueprint also included a plan to provide another drone unit to the army, which operates two squadrons.
“The laser weapon program is in a testing phase and expected to begin deployment in 2027,” a ministry official said. “The ‘soft-kill’ type jamming system would improve our response capability against small drones.”
Monday’s incident triggered criticism over South Korea’s air defenses as it tries to curb North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol chastised the military’s handling of the incursion, urging it to hasten the reinforcement of the drone units.
The military apologized for its response, and said it could not shoot down the drones because they were too small.
As part of efforts to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, the ministry seeks to procure more stealth jets, which it said would bolster real-time strike capabilities against moving targets.
The ministry would also secure additional ballistic missile submarines and accelerate the development of systems to intercept artillery rockets.
“We will strengthen our overwhelming massive punishment and retaliation capability to be able to destroy key facilities anywhere in North Korea in case of its nuclear attack or use of weapons of mass destruction,” the ministry said in a statement.
In total, the ministry aims to spend 331.4 trillion won on defense over the next five years, with an average annual increase of 6.8 percent. This year’s budget stood at 54.6 trillion won.
Defense expenditures are subject to parliamentary approval.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced new goals for North Korea’s military in a report to party leaders, state media reported yesterday, hinting that sanctions-busting weapons tests would continue next year.
Kim is presiding over a major party meeting in the capital, Pyongyang, during which the top leader and other senior party officials outline their policy goals for next year in key areas including diplomacy, security and the economy.
Kim “set forth new key goals for bolstering up the self-reliant defense capability to be pushed ahead with in 2023,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported, without giving any details.
The report “analyzed and assessed the new challengeable situation created in the Korean Peninsula,” the news agency said, in an apparent reference to the recent sharp escalation in tensions between the countries.
Kim made clear the “orientation of struggle against the enemy to be adhered to by our Party,” it added.
Additional reporting by AFP
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