The South Korean military cuts off power to surveillance radars targeting North Korea and other electronic equipment more than 1,000 times a year for fear of damage from inclement weather.

Electronic military equipment has been switched off due to bad weather some 5,645 times over the past five years, according to data the Defense Ministry submitted to lawmaker Han Ki-ho of the National Assembly Defense Committee on Thursday.

Equipment was switched off in 852 cases in 2009, 1,231 in 2010, 1,382 in 2011, 1,332 in 2012, and 848 between January and August thi s year.

In 5,250 cases the reason given was thunderstorms, and the most frequently switched-off equipment was air traffic control radars with 1,834 cases and air defense radars with 1,148.

"Surveillance radars targeting North Korea should be equipped with sufficient protection like lightning conductors so they can work in all weathers," Han said.