SEOUL, April 9. /TASS/. South Korea will reduce its troop count on the border with North Korea by two-thirds by 2040 due to low birth rates, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back announced.
Earlier, the top defense official stated that he plans to reduce the number of servicemen in border units from 22,000 to 6,000, supplanting them with AI-powered surveillance systems.
"Our goal is to achieve this by 2040 , and we will implement it in phases. There is no need to fear that troop numbers will be reduced tomorrow," Ahn Gyu-back wrote on Facebook (a social media site banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta corporation classified as extremist by the Russian authorities). The minister noted that replacing servicemen with technical surveillance equipment is "a necessity, not a choice" in the context of demographic changes. South Korea has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, while the proportion of its elderly population is growing.
The top defense official previously emphasized that these demographic changes necessitate a review of the country’s universal conscription system. Ahn Gyu-back proposes that conscripts be given a choice between regular active duty, which lasts an average of one and a half years, and a four-to five-year contract. In the latter case, conscripts can hold a sergeant's position and gain practical skills in using advanced technologies and weapons.