South Korea raises defence budget to counter North

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to spend 8 percent more on it military next year to boost defences against North Korea, which has raised regional tension with recent nuclear and missiles tests, the government said on Thursday.

The 2010 budget request for 30.8 trillion won (15 billion pounds) includes 109.3 billion won that has recently been added in response to military actions by the North, Vice Defence Minister Chang Soo-man told a briefing.

"Working on next year's budget, we tried to give priority to improving defensive power against the threat from North Korea," Chang said.

Chang declined to say how much would be spent on acquiring assets that are specifically intended for defence against the North's missile and nuclear programmes.

South Korea over the past several years has been modernising its 670,000-strong military to deter an attack from the North's ill-equipped military of about 1.2 million soldiers.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, never having signed a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 civil conflict and share one of the world's most militarised borders. About 28,500 U.S. troops are in the South to support its military.

South Korea will spend 2.3 trillion won on building new tanks, amphibious landing craft and the K-9 mobile artillery system. It will also allocate 1.6 trillion won to build destroyers and submarines, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Aircraft acquisition is allocated at 1.3 trillion won including the purchase of F-15s and reconnaissance planes, and 1.5 trillion won will be spent on guided missile defence systems.