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An opposition lawmaker on Monday alleged that ammunition reserves of the South Korean Armed Forces meet just 59 percent of the ammunition that will be needed if a war breaks out, even with support from U.S. Forces Korea. During the National Assembly's annual audit of state affairs, opposition Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Park Jin said that ammunition reserves of the Korean Army, Navy and Air Force meet just 18 percent of the required wartime amount.
According to Park's report, the ammunition reserves for the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) will last only 0.4 day, stoking security concerns over whether Seoul can take up a self-sufficient defensive posture against an attacking North.
The ammunition reserves for K1A1 tanks will last just ten days, while those for K-9 self-propelled guns will last only five days. The Army's reserves are remarkably smaller than that of the Navy and Air Force, though Park added that the figures are based on his own calculations and may be different from those of the Defense Ministry.
The armed forces are supposed to have ammunition reserves to last at least 60 days under the nation's wartime plan. Another GNP lawmaker, Song Yung-son, said that the Navy's reserves would last only 50 days, the Air Force's only 18 days and the Army's only nine days. Even if U.S. military ammunition were made available, navy reserves would last just 50 days, the Air Force's 40 days and the Army's 20 days.
Defense Ministrer Yoon Kwang-ung on Sept. 8 told the parliamentary Defense Committee that an enormous slice of the budget is needed to procure expensive ammunitions for new weapons systems and that, as for MLRS ammunition, the country would have to work out measures to use American ammunition in an emergency.
(Jang Il-hyun, ihjang@chosun.com )
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