<Anchor> The



government cut the defense budget by 1.5 trillion won.

In the course of the National Assembly review process, criticisms from the opposition and opposition were pouring in, saying 'the budget for combat uniforms and combat boots was reduced' and 'the Ministry of National Defense is forced to make sacrifices'.

Controversy continued with the defense minister's vague answer, but when we looked at the reasons for the budget reduction, there were many items that should have been cut.



Reporter Jo Ki-ho pointed it out.



<Reporter>



The plenary meeting of the National Assembly Defense Committee on the 17th.



Both the opposition and the opposition pointed out that there were many problems with the government's additional budget cut by 1.5 trillion won in the defense budget.



[Ki Dong-min / Democratic Party lawmaker: Soldiers take off their clothes, clothes, and even shoes.] [Shin Won-sik / People’s Power Representative: I don’t know how much more the budget will be

cut



in the future if the Ministry of National Defense is forced to make sacrifices like this.]



And I checked the reasons one by one.



First, the clothing budget.



The budget related to combat uniforms and combat boots was cut by 21.1 billion won, but it is expected that the number of active-duty entrants will decrease by more than 10,000 this year, so the budget has been reduced by that much.



Reservist training expenses were also cut by 62.2 billion won.



It was confirmed that the four-day general training and the three-day mobilization drill were reduced to one day due to the corona virus, reducing transportation and lodging expenses.



It was also pointed out that the cost of purchasing weapons was cut.



In fact, 550 billion won was cut out of the 17 trillion won that would be spent on the purchase of maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters.



The reason was simple.



This year's budget was cut because the U.S. defense industry was expected to miss delivery due to the supply chain disruption.



It was also confirmed that the portion of the 200 billion won reduction in defense cost sharing between the US and South Korea was not cut by us, but was given according to the calculation of the US military.



It was also a problem for the ruling and opposition parties to raise their voices without checking properly, but it was also a problem for the defense minister, who failed to calm the controversy with vague answers without explaining each item accurately.



[Lee Jong-seop / Defense Minister: At that time (at the time of the transition), I did not take care of it in detail.]



[Shin Won-sik / People's Power Rep.: Dispelling the idea that the defense budget can just be lowered than other budgets...

.]



[Lee Jong-seop/Minister of Defense: Yes, it is.

I totally agree.]



The Ministry of Finance, which cut down on the budget it is difficult to spend anyway, and acted as if it was tightening the belt, cannot be free from this controversy.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Ha Seong-won)