rps; some 4,000 women serve as
commissioned and noncommissioned officers, approx. 2.3% of all
officers (2008)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 13,691,809
females age 16-49: 13,029,859 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 11,282,699
females age 16-49: 10,683,668 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 371,108
female: 325,408 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

2.7% of GDP (2006)

Transnational Issues
Korea, South

Disputes - international:

Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone
has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic incidents
with North Korea in the Yellow Sea over the Northern Limiting Line,
which South Korea claims as a maritime boundary; South Korea and
Japan claim Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima), occupied by South
Korea since 1954

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Kosovo

Introduction
Kosovo

Background:

Serbs migrated to the territories of modern Kosovo in the 7th
century but did not fully incorporate them into the Serbian realm
until the early 13th century. The Serbian defeat at the Battle of
Kosovo in 1389 led to five centuries of Ottoman rule during which
large numbers of Turks and Albanians moved to Kosovo. By the end of
the 19th century, Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominant
ethnic group in Kosovo. Serbia reacquired control over Kosovo from
the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War (1912). After World
War II (1945), the government of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia led by Josip TITO reorganized Kosovo as an autonomous
province within the constituent republic of Serbia. Over the next
four decades, Kosovo Albanians lobbied for greater autonomy, and
Kosovo was granted the status almost equal to that of a republic in
the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution. Despite the legislative concessions,
Albanian nationalism increased in the 1980s leading to nationalist
riots and calls for Kosovo's independence. Serbs in Kosovo
complained of mistreatment and Serb nationalist leaders, such as
Slobodan MILOSEVIC, exploited those charges to win support among
Serbian voters many of whom viewed Kosovo as their cultural
heartland. Under MILOSEVIC's leadership, Serbia instituted a new
constitution in 1989 that drastically cu