Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: The U.S.-Korea Alliance and Arms Race By: J.J. Suh

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The U.S.-Korea Alliance and Arms Race By: J.J. Suh | Foreign Policy in Focus

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has increased its defense budget fourfold in less than twenty years, from 6.6 trillion won in 1990 to 26.6 trillion won in 2008. Last year’s spending represents a twofold increase from ten years ago; and now the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Defense Reform 2020 projects an annual average increase of 7.6 percent to 53.3 trillion won by 2020, another doubling over the next decade. Is Seoul engaged in defense-budget doubling projects every ten years? Why has South Korea’s military spending increased so much in recent years, and especially under the liberal governments of the past ten years? Why does it keep growing? Is there any pattern that we can discern in South Korea’s military spending? More at:
http://www.fpif.org/articles/allied_to_race_the_us-korea_alliance_and_arms_race