The document says that now the number of the Armed Forces of South Korea is 450 thousand people. Over the past six years, the reduction is about 20%.
For comparison. In the early 2000s, the Armed Forces of South Korea consisted of 690 thousand people.
The reason for this situation is mainly a sharp reduction in the country of the number of male recruiting age. This also leads to the lack of officers and, according to the authors of the report, such a situation can lead to an operational difficulty.
The agency recalls that in South Korea, men have been completed by the mandatory military service for a period of 18 months (after establishing a truce with North Korea in 1953, the South Koreans served 36 months).
The service life is associated with the Military Union of Seoul and Washington, as well as with the development of the defense industry of South Korea, which became a major exporter of weapons.
The defense budget of South Korea in 2025 will be about $ 43.9 billion, writers writes, noticing that this amount exceeds the estimated size of the North Korea economy (it is difficult to get the exact numbers from the DPRK).
