Defense budget in S.Korea to rise 4.2 pct in 2014

South Korea planned to raise its defense budget next year to strengthen missile and combat capabilities against possible provocations from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a government report showed Thursday.

Budget for the Defense Ministry was set at 35.8 trillion won ( 33 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, up 4.2 percent from this year's budget, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The budget plan, which will be submitted to the National Assembly in early October, needs to get approval from lawmakers.

Budget to improve defense capabilities will increase 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 10.7 trillion won next year. Around 1 trillion won was assigned to the so-called kill chain project, which preemptively detects and intercepts impending missile and nuclear threats from the DPRK. Some 120 billion won will be spent on the country's anti-missile defense system, including purchases of PAC-2 missiles and the upgrade to the PAC-3 system.

Budget plan to buy next-generation fighter jets increased to 732.8 billion won in 2014 from this year's budget of 337.8 billion won.