Budget for missile defense cut to increase soldiers' pay: lawmaker

By Yi Whan-woo

The Moon Jae-in administration has slashed the budget for missile defense projects to increase the pay for conscripts, an opposition lawmaker claimed Tuesday.

Rep. Kim Hack-yong of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party claimed the decrease in defense budget was to supplement the expenses needed to raise the wages for soldiers in line with Moon’s campaign pledge.

“It is suspected that the missile defense spending was decreased to meet the President’s populist campaign promise,” said Kim, who is also a member of the National Assembly Defense Committee. “The government is being negligent in national security if it is found to be deducting from the budget needed to defend against North Korean missile attacks, but instead is carrying out Moon’s pledge.”

Citing data obtained from the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kim said a total of 55.9 billion won ($49.4 million) was slashed from missile defense spending after undergoing a finance ministry review.

The amount is required to carry out eight projects linked to setting up the country’s three-pronged defense system -- the Kill Chain, the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) -- against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile attacks. The defense ministry is seeking to complete building the system by 2020.

Six of the eight projects require 50.6 billion won to build the KAMD aimed at launching preemptive strikes against North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities if the South is under imminent threat.

The six are related to the carbon fiber bomb, tactical ground guided weapons, KDX-II destroyers, reconnaissance satellite imaging, long-range air-to-ground guided-missiles and maritime patrol aircraft.

The other project, worth 5 billion won, is about PAC-3 missiles that form elements of KAMD, a missile defense system being developed to track and shoot down Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles.

The remaining project is worth 300 million won, with a goal of developing drones for special operations and helping South Korea retaliate against any possible North Korean attacks under the KMPR.

Kim said the 55.9 billion won is believed to be used in raising the total annual pay of the conscripts to 1.8 trillion won in 2018.

The amount will be a 73.2 percent increase from their pay this year. It is also 36.4 billion won more than the defense ministry initially planned to spend in 2018 for the pay of the soldiers.

Moon promised to raise the monthly pay of the soldiers as high as 30 percent of the minimum wage, which will rise by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won from 2017 to 2018. He also plans to cut the number of conscripts while recruiting more officers.

Moon’s plan comes as part of efforts to create smaller, but more self-reliant armed forces with a higher percentage of professional soldiers.

Kim said the spending on increasing the number of military officers will rise by 41.4 percent to 73.1 billion won from 2017 to 2018.