South Korea plans to spend more than $2.0 billion dollars over the next five years on buying hundreds of new missiles to cope with threats from North Korea

South Korea plans to spend more than $2.0 billion dollars over the next five years on buying hundreds of new missiles to "cope with threats" from North Korea, reports said Tuesday.
  
President Lee Myung-Bak at a ministerial meeting on April 28 approved a 2.5 trillion won ($2.14 billion) defense ministry project to buy 500-600 new missiles, Chosun Ilbo newspaper said. Yonhap news agency carried a similar report.
  
The defence ministry declined to confirm the reports, saying only that South Korea "agrees on the necessity of bolstering its missile capability".

The defence ministry made its request "given the mounting threat of provocations from the North since (new leader) Kim Jong-Un took power", Chosun Ilbo quoted a government source as saying.

Chosun said the military wants to increase the number of its Hyunmu-3 cruise missiles, and the number of Hyunmu-2 ballistic missiles which have a 300-km range.