Coping with Pressure: South Korea's Defense Restructuring and the Impact of the Recent Economic Crisis

Abstract

Abstract South Korea's latest defense modernization program aims to give the country a powerful, independent military that can effectively overcome challenges to its security well into the future. This includes being able to deal successfully not only with the present North Korean threat, but with possible regional crises in the post-reunification era, with or without support from US forces. Present and future threats, however, do not require the same military capabilities. Moreover, in democratization South Koreans have shifted their attitude towards defense and security issues. A broader, multilateral, more inclusive approach to security is the result. The article defines the ROK's two security strategies and examines the various elements of the military reform program, involving armed forces restructuring; force improvement programs associated with ground, naval, and air forces and common force capabilities; and reforms to the military industrial complex including changes to the defense procurement process, R&D policy, and the local defense industry, to achieve greater efficiency. The impact of the 1997–1998 economic crisis on military procurement and the defense industry is discussed, and its implications are assessed for South Korea's military reform program. The crisis actually hastened reform in some sectors, while the speed of the ROK's economic recovery permitted the swift revival of several important military procurement programs. The sudden loss of funding was to have a damaging effect on R&D, however, and the slowing of corporate sector reforms means that the ROK defense industry still faces an uncertain future.