SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's military shrank by 20% in the past six years to 450,000 troops, largely due to a sharp drop in the population of males of enlistment age for mandatory service in the country with the world's lowest birthrate, a report said on Sunday.
The dramatic decline in the pool of available males for military service is also causing a shortfall in the number of officers and could result in operational difficulty if it continues, the defence ministry said in the report.
