More than 58,000 South Korean soldiers lack gear sufficient to protect them from the threat of shrapnel and North Korean bullets, a South Korean lawmaker recently revealed.

Lawmaker Baek Kun-ki of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy stated that there are 100,549 South Korean soldiers engaged in high-threat daily missions such as guard duty at the General Outpost or special operations near the DMZ.

Baek’s statistics say that the South Korean Army only possess a total of 42,030 sets of body armor, leaving the remaining 58,519 soldiers at risk of exposure to enemy bullets and shell fragments should