Why Did President Roh Pledge Something That He Will Retract in Ten Days?

‘The President’s Pledge to Realize Self-Defense Within a Decade-Was It an Empty Promise?’

As President Roh admitted in a recent joint press briefing of economic dailies that increasing the defense budget would be difficult, the Ministry of National Defense is distressed. According to what President Roh said, next year’s defense budget will be less than 3% of GDP. Also, it became very uncertain whether the budget would go up to 3.2% of GDP, which was the level prior to the financial crisis, within the current administration.

Regarding this, one senior officer of the Blue House said, “If the defense budget is increased to 3% of GDP, it will be included in next year’s budget increase. So it’s hard to increase the level considering the reality of the situation.” He also added, “When the President referred to self-defense in his remarks on the Anniversary of National Liberation, he did not provide a roadmap with detailed budgetary plans but just proposed a general agenda.”

However, inside the Ministry of National Defense, which already submitted next year’s budget plan as 3.2% of GDP, people are saying that “realization of self-defense is still far off.”

So far, the Ministry has claimed that, in order to procure a wide range of cutting-edge military capacities needed for self-defense, 3.2∼3.5% of GDP should be invested in the defense sector in the coming decade. Experts point out that it corresponds with ‘the realization of self-defense within a decade’ that President Roh talked about on the Anniversary of National Liberation.

One Defense Ministry official said, “With the military budget below 3% of GDP, we can’t even sustain the current level, not to mention enhance military power,” and went on to say, “I cannot understand why the President talked about national self-defense to the whole world, without recognizing reality.”

Another official pointed out, “He cannot escape from criticism for stressing the cause of self-defense without any plans to secure the budget.”

Inside the Army, many people think that if the defense budget increases by just 1 trillion won, as the President said, then most of the major military power enhancement projects will be postponed or cancelled.

In fact, people in and outside the army were mostly skeptical when President Roh stressed the need for self-defense from the time he was the president-elect, even though he had points.

It is not easy to secure tens of trillions of won of budget to finance cutting-edge military capacities such as reconnaissance satellites and airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft. Moreover, there are concerns that, as the President also mentioned the redemption of wartime operational command when he stressed the need for ‘self-defense,’ the U.S might take it the wrong way.

One military expert said, “We should learn from Japan, which, after its defeat in the World War II, set forth self defense while enhancing its military power secretly.” He added, “National self-defense is no longer just an ideal or a slogan, but something we have to promote by thoroughly considering reality and national interests.”

Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com