S.Korea to buy more US weapons to counter North

[ErnstBlofeld]

Asia One/Reuters :

South Korea will buy more US weapons to strengthen its military and try to deter North Korean provocation, Seoul's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Han Duk-soo said the US government regarded South Korea as one of its highest-ranking military allies - on a par with NATO - which would allow Seoul to buy more advanced military equipment from the United States.

North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship in March underscored the need to bolster South Korea's military, Han told the Reuters Washington Summit.


"Certainly there will be more investment in those kinds of endeavors," Han said. "The issue was very crucial how to strengthen the deterrent power of our combined forces."

As a result, US arms sales to South Korea are likely to rise in the 2011 fiscal year, beginning on Oct. 1, he said. US arms sales to South Korea rose to US$939 million ($1.25 billion) in fiscal 2010 from US$819 million in fiscal 2009, according to the US agency that oversees foreign arms sales.

North Korea - which has conducted two nuclear tests but has not shown it has a working atomic bomb - is one of the world's most militarized countries with 1.19 million troops in active service and more than 7.7 million reservists.

The reclusive and unpredictable communist state also has more than 800 ballistic missiles and more than 1,000 missiles of various ranges.

South Korea has 655,000 troops on active duty and about 3 million reservists. They are reinforced by 28,000 US troops stationed in the South.