South Korea's Defense chief wants to 　trim the fat from the Korean Military:

"Since the objective of current military reform is to transform the organization of South Korea's military to a quality-based structure from a quantity-based one to create small but strong, advanced and elite forces, the reorganization of military structure is a key task," Yoon said in an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency.

South Korea has a plan to set its troop strength at around 500,000 in three stages by 2020, Yoon said, adding the cut will be offset by the introduction of sophisticated weapons.

"Yesterday, I received a report from a staff officer that when we have 500,000 troops, our ground forces will be on an equal status with North Korean ground troops. The Navy and Air Forces' strengths are 130 and 150 percent of those of North Korea," Yoon said.

"But it costs some money" to buy new weapons systems, Yoon said. "An estimated 1 trillion won of defense budget per year is necessary."
South Korea's military budget this year is set at 20.8 trillion won (US$20.7 billion), of which 7 trillion won is allocated to launch arms procurement projects.

The defense chief said he would streamline and transform Army units into more mobile forces, citing Washington's plan to change its fixed, Cold War-era military installations worldwide into agile, expeditionary forces.

"I will change the concept of fixed, guarding missions in front-line guard posts into the concept of mobile patrolling," he said.

Yoon also said he would disband two Army corps and several Navy and Air Force units in the rear area.

On the question of transforming the country's conscription system into a volunteer military, Yoon said, "I believe the change will be difficult until 2008" when more troop resources, such as women, will join the military.

"Also, 10 trillion won will be additionally needed if we hire 500,000 officers and non-commissioned officers and set their annual salary at 20 million won," Yoon said.

At the center of Yoon's reform agenda is installing civilian control over the armed services. The Defense Ministry has a roughly equal number of civilians and active-duty officers on its
725-member payroll, but most top ministry jobs have been taken by Army officers or Army retirees.

Yoon has also vowed to strengthen South Korea's war capability to be less dependent on the U.S. military. The U.S. keeps about 32,500 soldiers in South Korea but plans to set its troop level at 25,000 by 2008.