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A recently published military report points to massive holes in Korea¡¯s combat readiness as Seoul seeks to take over wartime control of troops from the U.S. Some 46 percent of Korea¡¯s military equipment is past its optimal lifespan, while organizational equipment needed to maintain optimal combat capacity is at only 86 percent of where it needs to be.
¡°In the case of vehicles and transport, if the budgets set forth every year continues to provide for just 18 percent of what is needed, the percentage of equipment will slide to 77 percent by 2010 and the amount of expired equipment increase to 68 percent,¡± the Army report says.
Since 1996, the budget for replacement of key equipment has been frozen, with about W100 billion (US$1=W965) sitting idle in accounts. Making up the deficiencies would cost an estimated W2.77 trillion, with organization equipment costing W548 billion and replacement of expired equipment W2.22 trillion. To fix this problem by 2011, the date it envisages for the handover, W550 billion needs to be budgeted every year, but this year only W110 billion has been earmarked for the cause, the Army said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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