(LEAD) Defense head seeks to temper row over letter to president

(ATTN: CHANGES slug; RECASTS headline; UPDATES with minister's comments throughout)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's defense chief tried Friday to quell a
political row over a letter that he had sent to the president to protest a cut in
proposed defense spending, officials said.

Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said in his letter to President Lee Myung-bak on
Monday that the government should refrain from curtailing the proposed 7.9
percent increase in defense spending for 2010.
In the letter that became public in its entirety on Friday, he also compared the
conservative government with its two liberal predecessors which he said were more
generous in funding arms.
"I meant well when I sent the letter to the president," Lee was quoted as saying
by multiple officials at the Ministry of National Defense.
"But I have brought trouble to him," the minister said at a meeting with his
senior aides, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the issue.
In the letter, Lee also said that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed
discontent last year over the scale of South Korea's defense spending and accused
Seoul of seeking a free ride on its alliance with the U.S.
Lee added that then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained in 2006
that South Korea was setting aside too small a portion of its gross domestic
product for defense despite security threats.
The U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately return an email seeking
confirmation.
In the controversial four-page letter, Lee likened his deputy, Chang Soo-man --
who bypassed him and suggested a more moderate increase to the finance ministry
-- as "the tail wagging the dog."
Chang is a confidant of President Lee, having served in his election camp in 2007
and seen as his point man on defense expenditures when appointed as vice defense
minister early this year.
The ministry proposed in July that it receive 30.8 trillion won (US$24 billion)
next year.
If approved, the figure would have marked the first time that defense funding has
surpassed the 30-trillion-won mark since the foundation of the country in 1948.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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