Idle Military Facilities Equivalent to the Area of 154 Soccer Fields

National Assembly Defense Committee Member Jeong Seong-ho Analyzes Audit Data
Rapid Increase in Idle Facilities Abandoned Nationwide Amid Defense Reform

As military units are being disbanded one after another, the number of idle military facilities abandoned nationwide is rapidly increasing.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to data on the 'Status of Idle Defense and Military Facilities' received by Jeong Seong-ho, a member of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, from the Ministry of National Defense on the 4th, the number of idle military facilities, which was 3,418 at the end of 2020, increased to 7,001 by the end of last year. In terms of area, an amount equivalent to 154 soccer fields (1,050,430㎡) remains unused.

By type, maintenance and supply facilities were the most numerous at 2,806 sites, followed by general support facilities (2,315 sites), basic barracks facilities (1,117 sites), officers' quarters and accommodations (373 sites), other facilities (197 sites), and education and training facilities (193 sites). The doubling of idle military facilities in just two years is due to the restructuring of unit organization.

Under Defense Reform 2.0, the military has been reducing its standing forces from 618,000 in 2017 to around 500,000 in 2022, and has been reorganizing unit structures by downsizing the Army corps from 8 to 6 and divisions from 39 to 33. This restructuring considered the projected demographic cliff, with the population of 20-year-old males expected to sharply decline from 290,000 in 2021 to 230,000 in 2035 and 130,000 in 2040. Accordingly, the Army's 23rd Division was disbanded in 2021, the 6th Corps, the 27th Division known as the 'Igija Unit,' and the 96th Maintenance Battalion were disbanded in 2022, and the 8th Corps was disbanded this year.

Although the military authorities demolished 9,100 idle facilities between 2019 and 2021 and 1,700 facilities in 2022, the aging of existing facilities and the increase in unit disbandments have caused the demolition pace to lag behind the growth rate of idle facilities. Since leaving idle facilities unattended for a long time increases the risk of crime and environmental pollution, which burdens local residents, there are calls for prompt clearance.

Assemblyman Jeong said, "Idle facilities with no plans for use should be intensively demolished to efficiently utilize national resources and coexist with the surrounding local residents."

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