[Editorial] Make a Better Military Reform Plan

The military reform plan that the Participatory Government has been pursuing has been made public. Basic plans include reducing troop levels from 680,000 to 500,000 by 2020 and simplifying the army's command structure and making it more effective by integrating what is currently divided into three areas. Also, greater roles are going to be given to the navy and air force.

Given how several attempts at reforming the military have ended without accomplishing much, the government should be recognized for coming up with a proactive plan. The security climate changed years ago and yet this is the first time the government has proposed reducing the number of troops. One notes how it seeks to make the plan binding by, unlike in the past, having it approved as legislation under the tentative name "Basic Law on Military Reform."

Since the government is supposedly trying to build a "small but powerful" military, however, it doesn't make sense that it wants to maintain a military that is 500,000 strong. In 2020 that will be one percent of the population, and it would be hard to find a country that has one percent of its citizens in the military. The number of children born each year is already less than that. In the future the Korean military should be smaller and voluntary, and that should be given more profound consideration. The model for the reform plan was France, which implemented reforms that centered on conversion to an all volunteer military over a period of six years beginning in 1996.

The possibility that military spending could increase rapidly as the military changes to higher dependency on technology and equipment is of concern. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has been demanding a ten percent increase every year. The justification for that is that it needs to fill the vacuum, but that appears to be the result of habitually thinking the confrontation between the two Koreas is a matter of course. You cannot draw a picture of the Korean military of the future while still only thinking of it as a deterrent against the North. The status of the Korean military should be the physical basis for maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia, with eventual reunification in mind.

When president Roh Moo Hyun rejected defense minister Yun Gwang Ung's resignation last June the reason he stated was that he needed Yun around to pursue reform. Now that the sail of reform has been hoisted they have to take the attitude that they are going to make the best possible proposal and be thorough about implementing it.

The Hankyoreh, 6 September 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]