South Korea Plans to Spend Billions on Missile Shield

The South Korean Defense Ministry last week offered its five-year budget proposal, which includes a major focus — to the tune of tens of billions of dollars — on increasing the country’s ability to thwart possible North Korean missile strikes from reaching their targets, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

S. Korea to deploy new surface-to-air missiles for Aegis destroyers

SEOUL, June 12 (Yonhap) — South Korea will arm its Aegis destroyers with the surface-to-air Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) starting 2016 as part of efforts to bolster its missile defense against North Korean threats, a senior government official said Wednesday.

The SM-6, which is suitable for low-altitude sky defense with a maximum range of 320-400 kilometers, is an upgrade of the SM-2 by U.S. defense firm Raytheon.