Korea to expand civilian supervision of arms contract

South Korea will push to expand civilian supervision of the defense procurement industry, the Defense Ministry said Monday, in a major bid to reform the corruption-prone sector.

Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Choi Yoon-hee is to stand trial on corruption charges in connection with the military's acquisition of AW159 Wildcat helicopters.

Choi is among current and retired military officials indicted by a special investigative team on graft cases involving arms dealings. The task force was launched last year as the deadly Sewol ferry sinking in March raised public criticism of corruption in the public sector.

As part of the reform plan, private organizations will replace military agencies in the process to test and verify the performance of related goods, according to the ministry.

The ministry will also seek to expand the portion of civilian members in procurement committees to 35 percent from the current 25 percent level, it added.

Former state procurement agency employees will be prohibited from entering the private defense procurement industry for five years. Currently, they face the restriction for three years.

The measures were decided in a meeting of officials from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all branches of the military, the Defense Acquisition Procurement Agency, and other defense agencies.

"The common understanding was that the meeting should root out defense acquisition-related corruption and drive out negative perception over the defense industry in order to restore the military's reputation disgraced by corruption," the ministry said. (Yonhap)