South Korea to Purchase Additional Weapons with Relocation of U.S. Forces in Korea

The South Korean military may have to buy more weapons in order to defend the front line due to the relocation of the United States forces stationed in Korea, Defense News reported in its February 17 issue.

Because the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division is planned to be relocated from north of Seoul to south of the Han River, the South Korean military is urged to purchase radars that can detect the North’s artillery attacks, helicopters that can carry out search and rescue work for 24 hours per day and additional artillery in order to respond to artillery attacks by the North, a South Korean Defense official was quoted as saying in the weekly defense magazine.

In addition, the United States hopes South Korea will appropriate a bigger defense budget in order to purchase the Ballistic Missile Defense System that would help the South cope with North Korea’s Scud missiles, and invest more into commanding and telecommunication systems, computers, intelligence, and reconnaissance.

Apart from the South Korean military’s reinforcement, the U.S. Defense Ministry plans to inject 11 billion dollars in an effort to modernize its military forces stationed in South Korea. The purchase list includes Stryker armored vehicles, the Patriot PAC-3 Missile System, and AH-64D Apache attack helicopters equipped with the advanced Longbow fire control radar.