S.Korea Raises 2017 Defense Budget By 4 % To Counter North's Nuclear Threats

South Korea has increased its defense budget for next year by 4 percent to strengthen missile defense capabilities against growing threats from North Korea.

The South Korea is planning to build a "Korea Air and Missile Defence (KAMD) system" and a "kill chain" to detect, identify and intercept incoming missiles in the shortest duration, the Yonhap news agency quoted a defence ministry official as saying.

The government has allocated 40.335 trillion South Korean won ( $36.5billion) for its 2017 defence budget, which is an increase of 4% from 38.799tn won allocated for 2016.

About 12.159 trillion won of the total allocated budget will be spent to improve the country's existing aircraft and anti-missile capabilities, while the remaining 28.176 trillion won will be used towards operating costs for troops and armaments.

Most recently, the isolated nation test-fired three ballistic missiles into the East Sea in a new show of force days ahead of the 68th anniversary of its government's establishment which falls on Friday.

The missiles that were fired by North were found to be upgraded variant of mid-range Rodong missiles. They flew about 1,000 km and landed in water some 400 km inside Japan's air defence identification zone in the East Sea.

Kim Hong-kyun the ministry's special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, and his US counterpart Sung Kim have agreed to meet on 13 September in Seoul to discuss "detailed countermeasures" against North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, The South Korean foreign ministry said.

The two countries have also agreed to continue their collaboration against repeated military provocation from the North. "Both sides will work closely together in order to keep sending out warnings against North Korea at various bilateral and multilateral levels," the foreign ministry added.