The Diplomat:
On Monday, South Korea’s parliament approved a record-high defense budget for 2017 in the face of a rising threat from North Korea.
The National Assembly passed the 2017 budget which included a 40.34 trillion won (US$34 billion) for defense, which had been announced by the South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) earlier this year.
The amount, which is around 10 percent of South Korea’s overall budget, makes it the first time that Seoul’s annual defense budget has exceeded 40 trillion won. It is also a four percent increase from the 38.79 trillion won allocated for defense back in 2016.
Within the budget, 28.14 trillion won will be spent on personnel and operating expenses, while 12.2 trillion won has been set aside for defense modernization, including expenses for research and development (R&D) as well as procurement.
NK News cited an MND official as saying that the fact that the portion of the budget dedicated to defense modernization had increased slightly beyond the usual cutoff of 200 billion won even after being examined by the National Assembly signaled the commitment by Seoul to strengthen its defenses against Pyongyang this year.
