Tag: ROK Army

Another ROK Army senior leader has now been arrested:

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Park An-su, who served as the chief commander during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law, was arrested Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Park was arrested with a court-issued warrant on charges of playing a key role in an insurrection and abuse of power.

Park became the fifth key figure who was arrested over Yoon’s Dec. 3 failed bid to impose martial law. 

So far, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung, head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun, head of the Army Special Warfare Command, and Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo, head of the Capital Defense Command, have been arrested.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have said this before, but it was foolish of President Yoon to think Soldiers in the modern day ROK Army would want anything to do with being part of a Gwangju Uprising like event. This just shows what a disconnect the elites in the ROK government have with their rank and file Soldiers if they thought they would follow these martial law orders:

The actions of military officers who resisted what they viewed as unconstitutional orders during the chaos of the Dec. 3 martial law declaration are drawing renewed attention, highlighting how many, despite their duty to obey, took a stand against unjust commands.

Rep. Lee Gi-heon of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea said in a press release on Dec. 9 that “on the night of Dec. 3, when President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, there were counterintelligence officers and personnel who resisted the orders in various ways.”

He cited cases brought to his attention. The military counterintelligence command had been designated as a key unit to be deployed to the National Election Commission (NEC) under martial law.

Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun has said the decision to deploy martial law troops to the National Election Commission was made “to assess the need for investigations into alleged fraud in the general election” in which opposition parties scored landslide wins over the ruling People Power Party.

The soldiers of the key investigative unit exhibited passive behavior before, during, and after their deployment to the NEC.

Kim Dae-woo, the commander of the Counterintelligence Command, is said to have summoned over 100 investigators prior to the declaration of martial law to assign tasks related to entering the commission.

When Major Choi expressed disbelief at the orders, Kim allegedly beat him severely, forced him onto a bus, and sent him to the commission, instructing him to secure the servers.

Despite the coercion, soldiers continued their resistance. Upon arriving at the NEC, they delayed executing the orders, which they believed were illegal, by engaging in trivial activities, such as eating instant noodles at a nearby convenience store.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but that must have been quite the site for the convenience store worker to see all these heavily armed Soldiers come in late at night and eat noodles.

I kind of assumed the K9 would have had its own domestically produced engine considering Korea’s manufacturing prowess; regardless soon it will have a Korean made engine:

South Korea has produced the first homegrown engine for the country’s K9 self-propelled howitzer after a yearslong development project, the state arms procurement agency said Friday.

The move comes after the country began the 32.16 billion-won (US$24.5 million) project in 2021, involving STX Engine Co., Hanwha Aerospace Co. and others, as part of efforts to reduce reliance on foreign defense parts, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

The K9, produced by Hanwha Aerospace, has been powered by a German MTU engine, built by STX Engine under a license.

DAPA said the homegrown engine will be more cost efficient and have improved performance. It is also expected to help efforts to export the K9 as it would not need to undergo extra approval procedures required for components of foreign origin.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see if robotics becomes another defense industry product that the ROK can reliably produce:

The state arms procurement agency said Monday it has test-deployed a multi-legged robot designed for counter-terrorism operations as part of a push to introduce advanced technologies to the military.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) launched the project in August 2022 to develop a robot that can check for threats inside buildings in a terror situation before troops are deployed.

The Army received the robot last Wednesday to conduct the six-month trial run to determine whether it is suitable for operations. The Army Special Warfare Command and a front-line Army division will assess its performance and capabilities.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.