In 2019, the militarized budget amounted to 64.5 percent of discretionary spending. military spending – which is primarily focused on current and potential conflicts abroad – to its analog here at home: spending on veterans of foreign wars, incarceration, immigration enforcement, and the war on drugs. ![]() This report takes note of that fact, and ties U.S. ![]() In December, Japan made a major break from its strictly self-defense-only post-World War II principle, adopting a new national security strategy that includes the goals of acquiring preemptive strike capabilities and cruise missiles to counter growing threats from North Korea, China and Russia.The United States is the single biggest military spender in the world. Yoon’s government has also said it would urge Washington to deploy strategic military assets near the Korean Peninsula more often. The allies plan to hold a tabletop exercise next month to sharpen their responses if North Korea uses a nuclear weapon. In an interview with The Associated Press last week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his government was discussing with the Biden administration joint military planning potentially involving U.S. The assembly passed legislation authorizing preemptive nuclear attacks in a broad range of scenarios where it may perceive its leadership as under threat, including conventional clashes or conflicts that wouldn’t necessarily amount to war.Īlarmed by the growing North Korean nuclear threat, South Korea and Japan are scrambling to strengthen their defenses in line with their alliances with the United States. Kim last appeared at the assembly in September, when he declared his country would never abandon the nuclear weapons he clearly sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. They also discussed strengthening the surveillance activities of the Central Public Prosecutors Office to establish a “revolutionary law-abiding spirit,” reflecting the determination of Kim’s government to exert control of the people in the face of deepening economic challenges. ![]() The assembly’s members also passed a new law aimed at protecting the “cultured” dialect specific to the capital Pyongyang region, apparently a move to stem South Korean and foreign cultural influences. He urged economic workers to strengthen their “ideological resolve” and put broader national interests ahead of the interests of their own units, KCNA said. KCNA’s report on the assembly meetings hinted that North Korea was struggling to revive a moribund economy battered by mismanagement, U.S.-led sanctions over Kim’s nuclear ambitions, and COVID-19-related border closures.įinance Minister Ko Jong Bom lamented unspecified shortcomings in raising tax revenues from state companies. State Department’s 2021 “World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers” report, North Korea possibly spent around $4 billion on defense in 2019, which would have amounted to 26% of its estimated gross domestic product, the highest proportion among 170 countries it reviewed.Įxperts say North Korea’s weapons development is driven by a Soviet-style party-military complex where the ruling party leadership surrounding Kim exercises full control over defense industries and faces scant constraints in concentrating national resources on arms capacities.
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