South Korea has approved a 6.7% increase to its annual defence budget, while also inaugurating a new military procurement agency.

The newly formed Defence Acquisition Programme Administration in January took over procurement responsibility that had been spread across eight military organisations, including South Korea’s ministry of national defence, air force, army and navy.

Seoul has approved a 22.5 trillion won ($22.8 billion) defence budget for 2006, with this representing a 6.7% increase over 2005. The sum includes 7.5 trillion won for force investment, a rise of 2.7% compared with 2005.

Source: Flight International