South Korea Decides to Not Make Further Cuts to Its Military; Will Maintain 500,000 Active Duty Troop Level
There was a huge troop reduction during the President Moon years that the current President Yoon is not going to cut further:
The South Korean military will maintain its current troop levels despite ongoing threats from North Korea’s military, according to a Ministry of National Defense prospectus released Wednesday.
South Korea will maintain its active-duty force of 500,000 service members until 2027, the five-year outlook states. The nation’s military numbered 618,000 active-duty troops in 2018, but was steadily downsized to 500,000 this year due to “a rapid decrease in young population,” according to the blueprint.
The plan adds 1,000 commissioned officers to the ranks while cutting 1,000 enlisted positions by 2027. Roughly 201,000 officers and 299,000 enlisted service members currently serve in South Korea’s military.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
40% of the ROK Military are officers??? Doesn’t that seem a little skewed? The ratio in the US military establishment is about 20%, which seems ridiculously high. But 40%?
David, they may be including NCOs in their count.
So where are they going to scrounge up the men from to keep those numbers up? How about recruiting retired right-wing American warmongers into the ranks? That could help.
All they’ll need to do is install wheelchair ramps, eh, Chinabot?
Korean Man has a point there.
The overall plan to reduce Korean military manpower was initiated, because of declining birth rate and in this changing world where technology and asymmetric warfare is the norm, huge numbers of light infantry isn’t the answer.
This announcement looks like a PR gimmick by the Yoon administration to show that they are “serious” about defense.
And for now, for a short period of time they can afford to boast that they have maintained force levels to 500 thousand.
But at the end of the day, when the incursions and other NK antics become old news, I wouldn’t be surprised if the planned reductions are back on track.