Category: ROK Military

This is a big change for the ROK Army with the merging of FROKA and TROKA into one ground command that will lead to a large reduction in leadership positions, but more responsibility for the ROK Army:

Official preparations are underway by the Ministry of National Defense to launch a Ground Operations Command, which will be central to the transfer of wartime operational control of troops and in defense reforms.

The Defense Ministry completed building facilities for the command within the Third ROK Army in Yongin, Gyeonggi, in October, a military source told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday.

Starting from November, a temporary ground operations command was formed.

In an attempt to reform the military’s structure, the government merged the 1st and 3rd Armies to create the Ground Operations Command to lead frontline units in case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula and will also function as the Ground Component Command.

The Defense Ministry did not announce the launching of a Ground Operations Command in its defense reform guideline for 2014 to 2030 released in 2014, leading to questions of how serious the ministry was about the plan.

Through the launching of the new command, the 1st and 3rd Armies will naturally dissolve. Thus, overlapping positions of the two armies are expected to disappear, which could mean as many as 10 general positions may be cut. Likewise, overlapping executive and commissioned officer positions are expected to decrease.

Once the Defense Ministry makes an operation plan for the command, it is expected to be tested out in the Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise in August 2018.  (……..)

The Ground Operations Command is expected to be transferred the tasks of the Ground Component Command (GCC) as well. The GCC is charged with commanding ground operations of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces during an emergency on the Korean Peninsula and carrying out wartime operational control.

The GCC is currently helmed by the deputy commander of ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC). After the Ground Operations Command is launched, the deputy commander of ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command can focus on the role of supporting the CFC commander.

U.S. and Korean army officials will revise the combined operation plans so that the new command will be able to take on the tasks of the GCC.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

His jail sentence was suspended which means his plan to dodge mandatory service did in fact work:

A man has been given a jail term for having his body covered with tattoos to avoid mandatory military service.

Under the conscription law, men with “excessive” tattoos on their bodies are immune from duty for fear that they could upset other soldiers.

The man, 20, was sentenced to one year in prison with the term suspended for two years, the court in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, revealed Monday. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This technology makes me wonder if a more powerful version of it could be to counter manned aircraft as well?:

South Korea is developing a technology to bring down unmanned North Korean aircraft using electromagnetic pulse (EMP), military officials said Sunday.

According to the officials, the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has developed a directional, high-powered EMP generator, and it’s trying to devise ways to use it against small North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

An EMP occurs when a nuclear device is detonated at a high altitude, potentially damaging the power grid and rendering most electronic devices useless.

The ADD is said to be studying unmanned aircraft’s potential weaknesses against EMP. Its EMP generator and its potential defense against drones were presented during a conference hosted by the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology last week.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Is this the tank that will one day be used to crush ISIS or will it be Kurds?

Turkey has completed the development of a new battle tank with South Korea’s technical support and assistance, media here said Thursday.

Otokar, a defense firm affiliated with local conglomerate Koc Holding, has finished the seven-year effort to develop the Altay.

A top company official was quoted as saying that the firm plans to begin mass production within the next 18 to 22 months.

The Altay project started in 2008 with Turkey signing a contract with Hyundai Rotem Co., a subsidiary of the Hyundai Group and the manufacturer of the K2 Black Panther battle tank, for technology transfer.

South Korea commenced the mass production of K2s in 2013 and each unit reportedly costs over US$8.5 million.  [Yonhap]

This is a horrible way to commit suicide if in fact that is what happened:

A soldier of the South Korean Army died on Thursday when a grenade exploded during a training exercise in the Demilitarized Zone along the border with the North, military officials said, suspecting that it could be a suicide.

The Army PFC, identified only by his last name Yang, died when a grenade went off at around 2:20 p.m. Approximately 10 soldiers, including Yang, were engaged in a military drill in the DMZ near the border town when it happened, according to the officials.

The exact cause of the explosion has not been determined, but the military officials suspect that Yang might have committed suicide using his own grenade.

A note he allegedly wrote was reported to have been found later which read, “(This) has nothing to do with (his) military unit.”  [Yonhap]

It seems for people with religious reasons for not wanting to conduct their mandatory service in the military could be used to do something more productive than sitting in a jail cell with other criminals:

Hopes are fading for an alternative to Korea’s mandatory military service after decades of calls from pacifists and religious groups to spare conscientious objectors the martial ordeal.

Some 6,088 young men chose prison rather than mandatory military service over the decade from 2006 to 2015, over 99 percent on religious grounds, according to Defense Ministry data Thursday. That boils down to 600 a year, or just 0.24 percent of all 250,000 annual conscripts.

They are sentenced to a year and a half in jail and must serve the time alongside ordinary criminals.  (……….)

But opponents say that South Korea is uniquely placed because it remains officially at war with North Korea, and there is insufficient public support for an alternative.

In data submitted to the National Assembly early this month, the Defense Ministry said alternative service “can be abused” as a way to evade military service, and there is “not enough consensus” seeing it as anything other than a privilege for followers of “certain religions.”   [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Radars are extremely hi-tech and complicated pieces of equipment that require maintenance and some ROK politicians are using maintenance outages to criticize the ROK military:

The country’s two Green Pine antiballistic radar units, which play a key role in detecting North Korea’s ballistic missile launches, have malfunctioned 21 times in the past three years, according to a military report that was submitted to Rep. Lee Chul-gyu of the ruling Saenuri Party and exclusively acquired by the JoongAng Ilbo on Sunday.

Considering that the military operates one radar unit at a time biweekly and it takes two hours to turn on the other radar when one breaks down, 21 malfunctions means the South went 42 hours with neither radar working.

The Air Force acknowledged the malfunctions as well as the gap of 42 hours, but said there wasn’t a single time that both units were simultaneously broken.

The military said that the radars stopped working mainly when droplets of water formed inside the machine due to a temperature difference with the outside layer, which paralyzed the system’s transmission output.

According to Lee, the military has recently decided to spend an extra 13 billion won to build a dome that would cover the radars, decreasing the temperature difference to prevent future malfunctioning.

“I can’t help but doubt the military’s professionalism,” said Lee. “How could they pay 200 billion won for each radar and not have prevented dew forming?”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is planning on developing a laser system to counter North Korea’s drone program:

South Korea will develop or purchase a new laser air defense weapon to bring down small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sent by North Korea, military officials said Wednesday.

“Amid growing worries about possible terror attacks by North Korea’s unmanned drones, we are planning to secure a high-precision weapon which can detect, trace and hit a small aircraft,” a defense official told Yonhap News Agency.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has entered into a project to develop core technologies for a laser weapon. The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has designated Hanwha Defense Systems as test product developer, according to the agencies.

“Depending on research and development (R&D) results, it will be determined whether the country can produce and deploy its own air defense system,” said an ADD official. “If not, the military plans to import a foreign air-defense system to counter North Korean unmanned aircraft.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Condolences to all the friends and family members impacted by this training accident:

South Korea’s Navy said Tuesday that it had found the body of one of three crew members who were aboard a chopper that crashed into the sea off the country’s east coast a day earlier.

At around 6 p.m., the Navy found the body some 1,030 meters under the sea during its search operation that used a remotely operated underwater vehicle.

The body was confirmed to be the Lynx antisubmarine helicopter’s main pilot, identified only by his surname Kim. Along with Kim, a secondary pilot and a naval non-commissioned officer were aboard the crashed aircraft.

“Lieutenant Kim’s body was found just outside the helicopter, and we are trying now to find the rest of the missing crew,” a Navy official said, declining to be named.

The Navy also said it retrieved parts of the helicopter.

The helicopter sent out a distress signal and disappeared from radar eight minutes after it took off from an Aegis destroyer at 8:57 p.m. for a joint military drill between the South Korean and U.S. navies, a spokesman said in a briefing.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It appears the ROK has put a lot of thought into killing Kim Jong-un if war was to break out:

South Korea’s defense ministry is planning a special force that could remove Kim Jong Un from power.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo also said Seoul needs to maintain the number of full-time troops at 500,000 or more if it is to resist an armed North Korean invasion, South Korean news network YTN reported Wednesday.

Han told lawmakers at South Korea’s National Assembly there is “a plan” to assemble a unit that could target the North Korean leadership, referring to a plan known as the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation, or KMPR, local news service News 1 reported.

“If it becomes clear the enemy intends to use nuclear-tipped missiles, in order to suppress its aims, the concept [of the special forces] is to retaliate against key areas that include the North Korean leadership,” Han said Wednesday.

KMPR is part of a “three-axis system” in South Korea’s military that includes Seoul’s homegrown anti-missile systems, the Korean Air and Missile Defense, or KAMD, and Kill Chain, a pre-emptive strike system.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.