Seoul announces major defence boost in 2020-24 plans
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense's (MND) latest Defense Mid-Term Plan covering the five-year period from 2020-24 foresees an ambitious increase in spending.
The roadmap emphasises the application and leverage of technology to achieve all-round security, and will require challenging annual budget increases of 7.1% to achieve.
The plan, announced on 14 August, envisages spending of KRW290.5 trillion ($239.9 billion), which represents a growth of 7% compared to the preceding 2019-23 plan.
The MND stated: ‘The ministry has decided to concentrate on enhancing defence capabilities to make leading responses to security threats from all directions possible, as well as
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