S. Korea spurs regional arms race headed by China: CSIS

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military spending rose 67 percent over the past decade, helping spur Asia's arms race led by China, a think tank here said in a report.

"South Korea's total defense spending increased in constant 2011 (US) dollars from $17.1 billion in 2000 to $28.6 billion in 2011," the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in the report on Asia's defense expenditures.

"The most significant growth took place between 2005 and 2007 leading to a spending peak of $30.1 billion in 2007," it added.

The research covers South Korea, China, Japan, India, and Taiwan, which account for around 87 percent of Asia's defense spending.

With the exception of 2009, the CSIS noted, South Korea boasted the second-largest per-soldier spending of all five nations examined.

South Korea has about 650,000 troops to confront a 1.1-million-soldier military in North Korea.

Per-soldier spending jumped from about $25,100 in 2000 to $43,600 in 2011, with peak spending of $43,700 in 2007, according to the CSIS, based on reports by the South Korea's defense ministry.

In general, China has led the expansion of military spending in Asia.

China's total defense budget grew from $22.5 billion to $89.9 billion between 2000 and 2011, said the CSIS, citing official data from Beijing.

In 2011 alone, Beijing spent $25.8 billion on new weapons and related research and development, up from $7.3 billion in 2000, it said. Many private studies put China's defense budgets at far higher figures.

Defense spending in the five Asian countries, meanwhile, totaled $224 billion last year, being poised to overtake that of Europe at the end of this year amid a race to procure state-of-the-art weaponry in Asia, according to the CSIS.

"These steeper growth trajectories in recent years might be a precursor for continued significant increases in defense spending, especially in light of large, high-profile investment decisions such as India's Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) selection, Japan's F-35 order, or South Korea's F-X-3 multi-role fighter competition," it said.