Last week, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense released a new roadmap for fiscal years 2021 to 2025, promising to invest in new, high-tech defense capabilities to safeguard against the DPRK and other threats.

These plans will certainly raise tensions. That said, its self-reliance elements may ironically improve the odds of a sustainable reconciliation.

The planhas lots of highlights, including doubling of missile defense capacity, building up a navy with bigger submarines and an aircraft carrier, mass producing a domestically produced fighter jet and establishing a network of surveillance satellites. All of this comes with a hefty price