South Korea’s military has shrunk by 20% in six years as male population drops

In a statement on Sunday, South Korea’s military military has fell to 450,000 soldiers in the last six years, to a large extent that the country has the lowest birth rate in the world due to a sharp decrease in the population of men.

The Ministry of Defense said in the report that the dramatic decline in the pool of existing men caused a deficiency in the number of civil servants and may cause operational difficulties if it continues.

The report was made to Choo Mi-Ae, the Parliament of the Democratic Party in the ruling ruling democratic party, whose office released it.
The South Korean army has been constantly fell from the early 2000s, when there were about 690,000 soldiers. Speed accelerated in the late 2010s, and in 2019 there were about 563,000 active soldiers and civil servants.

According to the latest estimation of the Ministry of Defense in 2022, North Korea is believed to have a about 1.2 million active army.

In the period between 2019 and 2025, according to government data, the population of 20 -year -old men fell by 30%, most men passing the physical exam, the age of 18 months of military service is currently entering the age. The Army showed the abilities developed as a key reason to shorten the service times that made it possible with the development of a defense industry that has become a military alliance with the United States and a major weapon exporter with the United States. In 1953, when the Korean War resulted in a ceasefire, he served for 36 months.

South Korea’s defense budget is greater than the estimated size of the North Korean economy, more than 61 trillion ($ 43.9 billion) in 2025.

Nevertheless, the army said that 50,000 units are short of the number of troops to maintain defense preparation. The authority said that approximately 21,000 of the deficiency is in the rank of unjust civil servants.

South Korea is one of the fastest aging societies in the world and has the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.75 in 2024, which shows the average number of infants expected to have a woman throughout the reproductive life.

According to a government projection, its population, which reached 51.8 million peaks in 2020, is expected to fall to 36.2 million by 2072.