Category: ROK Military

The Korean Military Academy continues this great initiative to honor West Point graduates that made the ultimate sacrifice during the Korean War:

Twelve West Point graduates killed during the 1950-53 Korean War were memorialized in a plaque erected last week at South Korea’s military academy.

The Korea Military Academy, about seven miles from Seoul, was established in 1946, one year before the 12 cadets graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

The 12 West Pointers from the class of 1947 took part in fierce battles during the Korean War, including the 55-day Nakdong River Defense Line Battle of 1950. Of the dozen killed from that graduating class, the remains of three have yet to be found.

“We will admire their ultimate sacrifice and professional military spirit,” said a statement from the Korea Military Academy. “Their sacrifice reminds people of the importance of the [South Korea]-U.S. alliance.”

Three other memorials honoring West Point alumni from other graduating classes are on the South Korean academy grounds and three more are to be constructed by 2023.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Another great addition to the ROK Navy:

South Korea on Tuesday launched a new indigenously developed 3,000-ton-class submarine equipped to fire ballistic missiles, the Navy said.  
   
Named after a prominent Korean independence activist, Shin Chae-ho, the new sub was launched in an afternoon ceremony at the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Tuesday, according to the military.  
   
The Shin Chae-ho is the third and final submarine in the Jangbogo-III Batch-I vessel class that the South Korean military has built and developed using domestic technology.  
   
The 3.09 trillion won ($2.77 billion) project, which began in 2007, has yielded three submarines that can fire submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty significant technological leap by the ROK Navy:

 South Korea has successfully test-fired a homegrown submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a new submarine to become the world’s eighth country to possess the weapon, sources said Tuesday.

The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) carried out underwater ejection tests of the SLBM from the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine last week after successful launches from an underwater barge last month, according to the military sources. 

The locally developed 3,000-ton class submarine is equipped with six vertical launch tubes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here are the latest changes coming to the ROK military:

The South Korean military will begin to deploy new weapons systems and significantly upgrade its technological capabilities in response to South Korea’s shrinking population and the North’s development of nuclear weapons, including a ballistic missile as destructive as a tactical nuclear weapon, according to the Defense Ministry’s 2022-2026 defense plan which was released Thursday.   
   
It is expected that 315.2 trillion won ($271.8 billion) will be spent achieving the plan, the military’s five-year blueprint for upgrading its arsenal.   
   
A highlight of the plan is a surface-to-surface missile that can carry a 3-ton warhead and fly up to 400 kilometers (248 miles), which is in the final phase of development.  
   
The plan comes after the United States agreed to lift Cold War-era restrictions on South Korean missile technology in May, following a summit between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden.  
   
The plan would also re-organize the armed forces to reflect the rising significance of technology and the military’s declining pool of eligible men to serve.  
   
The Army will be reorganized into a troop-saving unit structure based on high-tech technology, maintaining the current two-fold operational command structure: the Ground Operations Command and the Second Operations Command.  
   
However, with the elimination of the 6th and 8th Army Corps, the number of Army Corps will be reduced from eight to six, while the number of divisions will decrease from 35 to 33.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but if the ROK military is making cuts because of decreases in manpower they could always start conscripting women as well.

By the way does anyone find the Defense Minister visiting a ROK Navy ship in a hazmat suit a bit ridiculous?

If this was done for the U.S. military I am willing to bet there would be less convictions because of the higher standards to convict in a civilian court:

Military sex crimes will be tried in civilian courts, not in military courts, as the National Assembly on Tuesday approved a revision of the military justice system in the wake of suicide deaths of sexual harassment victims at barracks.

Under the revision of the Military Court Act, all sex crimes in the military will be tried at civilian courts from the beginning. Also to be dealt with by civilian courts, rather than courts-martial, include such violent crimes as homicide and crimes that service members committed before joining the military.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the U.S. wants South Korea to play a larger role in space policy:

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Park In-ho has signed a deal with the chief of the U.S. space operations and agreed to form a joint consultative body on space policy to strengthen cooperation, his office said Sunday.

During his visit to the Air Force Space Command in Colorado, Park signed a memorandum of understanding with Gen. John Raymond on the formation of a joint space policy consultative body on Friday (U.S. time), becoming official partners in space security cooperation.

The Air Force plans to further boost cooperation with the U.S. space force, including exchanging information, through the consultative body.

Park also held a bilateral meeting with the command chief, Gen. James Dickinson, and agreed to strengthen partnership on sharing information on space surveillance, as well as improving joint space operations capabilities, such as missile defense.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the ongoing CCPT exercise:

South Korean troops conducting a joint, computer-simulated exercise with their American counterparts were all vaccinated and tested for COVID-19 before training began, a military official said Monday. 

A South Korean Ministry of National Defense official speaking on the customary condition of anonymity told Stars and Stripes that due to service members being in close proximity with each other, “it was very important for all of them to get vaccinated.”

The two countries are conducting a combined command-post training Aug. 16 to 26. Rather than a large-scale field exercise involving thousands of combat troops, this exercise will primarily focus on computer simulations.

U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Lee Peters, citing the command’s policy, did not comment on whether American forces participating in the joint training were all vaccinated. 

However, Peters said USFK “can reassure you that we remain aligned with [the defense ministry] on aggressive COVID mitigation measures including conducting training with minimal essential personnel and in distributed locations.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the most interesting thing I read in the article was that 93% of the 550,000 ROK troops have received the vaccine though it is voluntary.

This ROK soldier just came short of earning a mandatory military service exemption:

A South Korean high jumper hoping to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics and qualify for an exemption from his country’s mandatory military service may earn some extra vacation days instead.

Pfc. Woo Sang-hyeok, 25, of the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps, placed fourth in the men’s high jump category after clearing a 2.35-meter bar. That performance broke South Korea’s previous record of 2.34 meters, or 7.7 feet, set in 1997.

Higher jumpers from Qatar, Italy and Belarus edged out Woo with their 2.37-meter jumps in the final round. The Olympic record for the event is 2.39 meters and was achieved by American Charles Austin in 1996, according to the International Olympic Committee’s website.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is a new drone capability the ROK military has just decided to purchase:

An attack drone equipped with six 40-millimeter grenade launchers will be piloted by the military in the first half of next year, according to the state arms procurement agency on Tuesday.  
   
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a June 3 press release that it signed a contract with two companies to purchase grenade-launching drones and small modular drones equipped with the latest technologies through a rapid pilot acquisition project system and to test-run the models in the first half of next year.  
   
The contracts with ONC Tech, which will provide the grenade-launching drones to the Army, and Preneu, which will furnish the small modular drones to the Navy and Air Force, are worth 662 million won ($576,600) and 1.71 billion won, respectively.  
  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.