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Defense Ministry seeks to fill 60% of ranks with career soldiers by 2040

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense plans to raise the proportion of officers and noncommissioned officers in the military to 63 percent by 2040, as the country seeks to cope with a shrinking pool of conscripts caused by a steep demographic decline. The plan, unveiled during a defense reform seminar held at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, Seoul, Tuesday, calls for shifting the military’s manpower structure to have career soldiers outnumber conscripts. Under the proposal, the share o