SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea is considering drastically reducing the number of its Army corps and divisions to strengthen the reform of its 680,000-member military, reported South Korean Yonhap News Agency on Monday.

    South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung rendered a plan toPresident Roh Moo-hyun on last Thursday over a set of measures to reorganize the South Korean military, Yonhap quoted an unnamed topSouth Korean Defense Ministry official as reporting.

    The tentative plan, which needs approval of the National Assembly, is including the content of cutting South Korean troop level by one-fourth, or about 180,000, from 2008 to 2020.

    At the same time, the Defense Ministry intends to slash the number of its reservists to 1.5 million from the current 3.4 million, the official added.

    The plan also calls for two of the South Korean Army's three major combat organizations to be merged into a "unified ground operation command," the official said.

    The plan seeks to establish a "rear area operation command" after disbanding the current 2nd Army charged with defending the area away from the border with the Democratic People's Republic ofKorea (DPRK), he said.

    The transformation would slash the number of Army divisions to 27 from the current 47 and the number of its corps to four from the present 10, the official said.

    The Defense Ministry aims to obtain parliamentary approval for its reform measures by the end of this year, after holding furtherconsultations with governing party officials and outside experts.

    Reorganizing the inefficient, Army-dominated military is a major policy goal of Roh Moo-hyun's government which aims to beef up its war capability while reducing its dependency on the US military.

    The United States currently has 32,500 troops here. Enditem