.jpg) |
| South Korea's M-SAM system under-development |
South Korea said today it will sharply raise the defense budget over the next five years to beef up its capabilities against North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. The budget injection of 8.7 trillion won ($8.03 billion) is based on the assessment that Pyongyang is believed to have reached a "significant" point in efforts to master the technology to miniaturize nuclear warheads that fit atop missiles.
It is part of the ministry's budget plan for the 2016-2020 fiscal period, which calls for $215bn in total, a 7 percent increase on average during the cited period compared to its 2015-2019 version.
While costs for maintaining troops are set at $143bn and the rest will be for the improvement of military capabilities, the government, specifically, is to invest $5.55bn in building the country's preemptive strike apparatus, the Kill Chain, and $2.5bn into the development of the low-tier air defense program, the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system, over the next five years.
Read the full story at Army Recognition