Military abandons plan to cut ordinary expenses by 10 pct

The Ministry of Defense will drastically cut the budget for various ordinary expenditures and for increasing its conventional warfare capability in favor of investments over the next five years in its state-of-the-art battle potential. A high-ranking ministry official said Sunday that the recent plan to curtail these types of expenses at the ministry, Joint Chiefs of Staff, army, navy and air force had nothing to do with military force or arms reductions.

``Since the funds are to be secured at an early date thanks to the curtailment of expenditures in these fields, manpower reductions in all branches of the military will be kept to a minimum,`` he said. The new initiative effectively nullifies an earlier plan to lower expenses by 10 percent at the ministry, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the three main military branches. The previous blueprint was the focus of criticism from both inside and outside the military.

The official also said, ``Office automation and information technology developments are forcing us to reduce manpower at the command, administrative and support levels at military headquarters and other offices. It is also unavoidable that we repeal the current system of appointing two deputy commanders at each division.``

Yonhap