Political circles continue to criticize the government for cutting 1.5 trillion won in the defense budget while drafting the second supplementary budget plan.

In the plenary session of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee held on the 17th, Dong-min Dong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, made a statement saying, "Soldiers are taking off their clothes, clothes, and shoes..." to prepare an additional budget bill.

People's Strength lawmaker Shin Won-shik also criticized Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop, saying, "I don't know how much more the budget will be cut if the Ministry of National Defense is forced to make sacrifices like this."

It means that the opposition and opposition parties with one voice pointed out that there are many problems in the current government's supplementary budget plan. 



Some media and netizens have spread the controversy by adding more arrows of criticism towards the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of National Defense, which have prepared an additional budget plan, on the sentimental claims spread by the politicians.

As a military writer, when I first came across the article, my anger simmered.

If that was the case, I thought that I should investigate why such an absurd supplementary budget was drawn up.

But there was a twist.

This is because, in the course of the interview, it was understood that the arguments of the opposition lawmakers were slightly different from the facts.

So, we examined the details of the reduction and the reasons one by one.


Take off your clothes to raise funds for the supplementary budget?


According to the budget for '22 last year, it is expected that there will be 200,000 active-duty enlistments this year.

So, when we counted the number of residents by May, it came out to about 75,000, 6,000 fewer than the originally expected 81,000.

That's why the statistics suggest that by the end of this year, the number could decrease by more than 10,000.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance believes that this is because young people have postponed their enlistment due to COVID-19.

Because the number of people has decreased, there is no reason to purchase additional clothes, etc.

It is reasonable to view that the cut of 21.1 billion won came from that.

Rep. Ki also seemed to back down, saying, "It was a symbolic story" to the remark of 'removing the cloth', but his seditious remarks spread as soon as it spread to the public.



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Reservist training costs have also been cut?


The reserve army education and training budget was also reduced by 66.2 billion won.

There were also criticisms that an axis of national defense might collapse over this.

But if you look at this too, Corona 19 was the cause, not the money that should be paid to the reserve forces.

Originally, reservists had to participate in general training (4 days commuting to and from work) and mobilization training (3 days training camp together), but due to concerns about infection with COVID-19, all training was reduced to one day.

We were able to save that much on transportation expenses, lodging and food expenses, and training compensation expenses to be paid to the reservists. 



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Reduction of 100 billion won in weapon purchase costs?


Even saying that the money to buy weapons has been cut can cause anger among the people who are worried about national defense.

As it turns out, this year, the DAPA planned to purchase weapons such as maritime patrol aircraft and operational helicopters for about 17 trillion won.

But even here, COVID-19 was a variable.

The U.S. defense company said that it was difficult to procure parts due to disruptions in overseas supply chains.

It is said to be worth about 3.6 billion won.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance and Defense explained that the budget for improving the performance of the F-35A fighter, which North Korea fears the most, was "deferred because it is a sensitive part" from the US defense company.

Since some weapons cannot be imported, there is no need to build the facilities necessary for the weapon system right away.

In this way, it is not a reasonable view to think that the government has lowered the national defense power to finance the supplementary budget because it is a situation where it is not 'buy' but 'can't buy' weapons.


Reducing defense cost-sharing between the US and South Korea threatens security?


It is said that worrying about the chaebols and star entertainers is a worry that should not be done regardless of the East and West.

Is the ROK-U.S. defense cost-sharing money something we can reduce at will?

There are some people who call it worry by abbreviating it, but it was not true.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the amount we will share this year is about 1.3 trillion won.

However, the US military side came up with a bill after measuring the demand according to their formula, and it is said that it was 1.1 trillion won.

This is the reason why we were able to save at least 200 billion won this year.



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The thought that came to mind while watching the National Defense Commission meeting was that if the lawmakers asked questions like that and pushed them, it would not be easy to give an answer.

Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop also did not respond properly.

While serving as a member of the takeover committee, he confessed that he "didn't take care of [the supplementary budget] in detail."

However, I think it was right to actively explain the parts that could be unfair to the Ministry of National Defense even if they were insulted by lawmakers.

I think that the attitude of holding back what you want to say or answering the question well, rather, caused controversy.

Even if a person makes a mistake, he should be blamed for the size of the mistake, and there is no reason to be criticized less or more than that.

In addition, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance also raised controversy by using the promotional phrase, '7 trillion spending restructuring'.

This is because most of the savings mentioned above are budgets that are discarded at the end of the year without much effort, and not budgets saved by tying a belt. 



(Photo = provided by the Ministry of National Defense, Yonhap News)