South Korea Slashes $488.7Mln From Defense Budget To Fund COVID-19 Relief - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2021) South Korea has allocated 562.9 billion won ($488.7 million) from the defense budget to fund an extra budget to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, citing the country's defense ministry.

In July, the South Korean parliament approved an additional budget of 34.9 trillion won ($30 billion) to support the country's economy and small business that were hit by the pandemic.

To pay the money for this, the funds that were originally earmarked for 22 defense projects, including introduction of F-35A fighter jets and upgrade of Patriot missiles, were slashed from the ministry's budget.

Nevertheless, Defense Ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan said that the budget cut will not undermine the deployment of F-35As as well as that the ministry will not change the way it operates.

Last year, Seoul cut the defense budget by about 1.77 trillion won ($1.5 billion) to finance COVID-19 relief efforts.