Military control handover no big financial burden: gov’t
Opponents of transfer of wartime operational control have claimed that the nation will have to bear a heavy financial burden due to the cost of the transition. In response, others have raised objections to such calculations, calling them simplistic. The government says that the transfer of wartime command is one thing and that "Defense Reform 2020," the Ministry of National Defense’s ambitious 15-year budget reform plan, is another. According to ministry officials, the military has prepared for the reform plan for more than 10 years, before the current administration’s drive to regain wartime military control from the U.S. Forces Korea.The ministry officials said that the ministry decided to complete the transfer process by 2012 following the schedule of defense reform, citing the need to build up the nation’s military potential, but said that the ministry did not decide to introduce advanced weapons systems merely because of the transfer of wartime command. Nevertheless, the costs in connection with the takeover of wartime operational control can be estimated by the defense budget suggested by the ’Defense Reform 2020’ plan. According to the plan, the costs of strengthening South Korea’s military is estimated at 273 trillion won (about US$284 billion), nearly 44 percent of the entire defense budget until 2020. The plan involves the acquisition of multi-purpose satellites, a digital warfare system known as C41, three Aegis-class destroyers, and 60 advanced F-15Ks. These purchases, at around 30 trillion won, amount to more than 10 percent of the entire cost for the buildup of military preparedness. Regarding this large-scale budget, the office of senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security said, "Under the five-year mid-term plan, the defense cost is 151 trillion won, about a third of which is for projects to strengthen the nation’s wartime military potential." As a consequence, South Korea will have to spend 3 trillion won annually for a period of five years, he said, the amount of time the government has deemed necessary to completely recover wartime command. Some media outlets reported that if wartime command is recovered earlier, as the U.S. demands, citizens will have to bear a higher economic burden. But the defense ministry did not agree to this statement, saying, "Even if the nation takes over the wartime command earlier, there will be nothing approaching a heavy financial burden. It will be difficult to suddenly rearrange the timetable of projects to build up military wartime potential." If the transfer happens in 2009 as per U.S. demands, Washington has agreed to support Seoul until it has enough capability, according to the government. Civic groups, however, claim that strengthening the military’s potential, which requires large-scale funding, should not be a precondition of the command transfer. The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a civic rights watchdog, said that "South Korea’s buildup of [military strength] will bring a security dilemma to the Korean peninsula. In that case, North Korea will consider other strategies to strengthen its military power."
