[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] 'All-out deployment of advanced weapons'... What about the cost of the military parade?

Ministry of National Defense Requests Cooperation for Unexplored Strategic Weapon Transport Costs to be Borne by Companies
Including City Parades and Other Expenses, Budget Reaches Record High

It has been reported that 10 billion KRW was spent on this year's Armed Forces Day event held on the 26th of last month. Although Armed Forces Day is on October 1, this year the ceremony was moved forward considering the Chuseok holiday period (September 28 to October 3). With the addition of the city parade, which was the highlight of the event, it is estimated that the largest budget was poured into it.

The 75th anniversary of the founding of the armed forces and Armed Forces Day commemorative event is taking place on the afternoon of the 26th along Sejong-daero in Jung-gu, Seoul, where the three-axis system equipment of the armed forces is conducting a parade. Photo by Joint Press Corps

The 75th anniversary of the founding of the armed forces and Armed Forces Day commemorative event is taking place on the 26th along Sejong-daero in Jung-gu, Seoul, as the three-axis system equipment of the armed forces enters the city. Photo by Joint Press Corps

The 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Armed Forces National Armed Forces Day celebration is taking place on the 26th around Gwanghwamun Street in Jung-gu, Seoul, with advanced weapons participating in a parade. Photo by Joint Press Corps

According to a Ministry of National Defense official on the 1st, the original budget for the Armed Forces Day event was about 7.9 billion KRW, but as the scale of the event grew, an additional 2.2 billion KRW was invested. The official stated, "As the government’s will expanded the scale of the event, additional defense budget was injected."

This year’s Armed Forces Day event was held on the 26th of last month at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the armed forces and the 70th anniversary of the Korea-US alliance. For the first time in 10 years since 2013, a city parade was held around Seoul’s Sungnyemun and Gwanghwamun areas. It was the largest scale ever based on the equipment deployed.

The city parade involved about 4,600 troops and 170 pieces of equipment. This included the Army’s K21 infantry fighting vehicles and K2 Black Panther tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, the Marine Corps’ amphibious assault vehicles (KAAV), Patriot surface-to-air missiles, medium-range surface-to-air guided missile systems (Cheongung and M-SAM), and long-range surface-to-air guided missile systems (L-SAM). Due to cloudy weather, rotary-wing and fixed-wing air forces did not fly that day.

Defense companies invested budget for flight demonstrations of the Korean fighter KF-21 Boramae, light armed helicopter (LAH), medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAV), which are still under development, as well as for ground parades of corps-level unmanned aerial vehicle-II, long-range surface-to-air guided missile (L-SAM), unmanned surface vessels, and multipurpose unmanned tactical vehicles. The Ministry of National Defense required the companies to bear the costs associated with deploying these weapon systems. It is estimated that tens of billions of KRW were spent on aircraft fuel, personnel costs for pilots, mechanics, and safety control staff, transportation costs for launchers and other vehicles, and equipment insurance fees.

Adding these amounts, the total budget spent on this year’s Armed Forces Day event is expected to be around 13 billion KRW. This is effectively the largest budget ever allocated.

City parades were also held under past governments. Since the Kim Dae-jung administration in 1998, they have been held every five years, i.e., only once in the year a president takes office. City parades were held during the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2003, the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2008, and the Park Geun-hye administration in 2013. However, during the Moon Jae-in administration in 2018, the city parade was canceled due to events such as the Singapore North Korea-US summit.

The last military parade was held in 2013, with 9.19 billion KRW spent on the Armed Forces Day city parade and celebration events. The military had planned a large-scale event for the 70th anniversary in 2018 but simplified the event by omitting the military parade considering inter-Korean relations. The budget spent then was 2.72 billion KRW, which was 34% of the allocated 7.91 billion KRW.

In North Korea’s case, it is predicted that about 1 trillion KRW was spent on the military parade event, which is about one-third of North Korea’s annual budget. In October 2015, during the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party founding, North Korea reportedly ordered foreign currency procurement to cover the huge costs of the event. It is known that residents were charged 40 yuan (approximately 7,461 KRW) per household in Chinese currency under the pretext of supporting construction projects or the military parade.

The Russian military parade is similar. In 2017, the amount spent on the parade reached 810 million rubles (approximately 16 billion KRW). The US military parade is also costly. The 2019 US military parade budget was 92 million USD (about 103.8 billion KRW). Approximately 50 million USD was spent on aircraft, various weapons, and troop mobilization, and the remaining 42 million USD was used for security and unit expenses.