I think what President Yoon is preparing the ROK military for, is to strongly respond to a Cheonan sinking or Yeonpyeong Island shelling like provocation. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this, but North Korea seems due to provoke something in the Yellow Sea which has been quiet for quite a while:
President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks to top commanders at the the Gyeryongdae military headquarters, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, on July 6, 2022. (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the military on Wednesday to swiftly punish North Korea in case of provocations as he presided over a meeting of top commanders for the first time since taking office.
“(The president) ordered our military to swiftly and firmly punish North Korea in the event that it carries out a provocation,” his office said after Yoon’s meeting with the commanders from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps at the Gyeryongdae military headquarters, 160 kilometers south of Seoul.
“He stressed that it is the military’s mission to defend the people’s lives, property, territory and sovereignty at all costs, and that we must firmly show our resolve to do so,” the office said in a statement.
North Korea has carried out a series of short- to long-range missile tests since Yoon’s inauguration in May and showed signs of preparing for what would be its seventh nuclear test.
Fortunately there are still plenty of people willing to fight to defend South Korea, but the trend from this survey is showing that the number of people willing to fight in decreasing:
Nearly seven out of 10 South Korean nationals are willing to fight for their country in the event of war, according to a recent poll.
The World Values Survey polled 1,245 South Koreans, 67.4 percent of whom expressed their willingness to fight for their country, while 32.6 percent were unwilling to take up arms to defend their homeland.
South Korea ranked 40th out of 79 countries polled between 2017 and 2021 when it comes to the percentage of the population willing to fight for their country in the event of a war, but the percentage of people who are unwilling to take up arms has been steadily increasing, compared to 6.5 percent in a 1981 survey.
You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the number would be if the people unwilling to fight did not have the option of fleeing South Korea to another country. Would they fight then?
Training program for reserve forces resumes Members of the reserve forces engage in a fighting drill at a boot camp in the southeastern city of Daegu on June 2, 2022, as an annual field training program for the country’s reserve forces resumed after being suspended for the two previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea’s reserve forces are made up of people who completed the mandatory military service of about two years over the past eight years. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see if South Korea agrees to this because they would indirectly be seen by Russia as supporting the Ukrainians with arms:
The South Korean government has been reviewing the export of artillery shells to Canada in a bid to help the country replenish its depleted weapons stocks sent to Ukraine.
Canada recently asked if South Korea is able to export 100,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition through a diplomatic channel, a South Korean senior official at the Defense Ministry confirmed to The Korea Herald on Monday.
The South Korean official said the government has not yet formally begun procedures to proceed with the export. But the military has been reviewing whether it is capable of supplying the artillery shells in light of its weapons stocks and readiness posture.
Canada made the request to fill up its ammunition stocks which have been exhausted due to its lethal aid to war-torn Ukraine, according to the official.
To make way for the Presidential office in Yongsan the ROK military’s Joint Chief’s of Staff office will be moving to Southern Seoul:
Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup speaks during a parliamentary session at the National Assembly in Seoul on May 17, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
The South Korean government plans to relocate the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) headquarters to southern Seoul and seeks to construct its new building there by 2026, the defense ministry said Tuesday.
In a parliamentary policy briefing, the ministry made public the relocation plan, as the ministry’s key offices have occupied parts of the current JCS building since the presidential office’s relocation to what used to be the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul’s central district of Yongsan.
Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said that the government plans to move the JCS building to the Capital Defense Command in Namtaeryeong, southern Seoul, in the “mid- and long-term.”
Lee estimated that the relocation and the construction of the new JCS building may cost between 200 billion won (US$ 157 million) and 300 billion won, much more than initially expected.
I would think the average young Korean male would be furious about the special treatment that celebrities would get with this bill. The celebrities that have already served in the ROK military have already been given largely special treatment as it is:
In this undated photo provided by Big Hit Entertainment on March 14, 2022, K-pop supergroup BTS performs at the “BTS Permission to Dance on Stage – SEOUL” online and offline concert at Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul. BTS held three concerts on March 10, 12 and 13, respectively.
The ruling and opposition parties have discussed a need for swift review of a bill allowing K-pop superstar BTS and other prominent pop celebrities to substitute their mandatory military service for other public service, a lawmaker said Tuesday.
Rep. Sung Il-jong of the People Power Party, who serves as executive secretary for the parliamentary defense committee, told MBC radio that he and his Democratic Party counterpart recently discussed the need to swiftly review the bill pending in the National Assembly.
“Since it is a matter related to fairness and national interest, I don’t think there will be any disagreement between the ruling and opposition parties,” Sung said.
It looks like there will be a little bit less depleted uranium in South Korea:
South Korea has handed over some 1.1 million rounds of potentially hazardous ammunition stored here for decades to the U.S. military for shipment to the United States, a ruling party lawmaker said Monday.
The country’s Air Force recently sent the depleted uranium ammunition to the U.S. 7th Air Force based in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, to ship them to the U.S. by sea by mid-April, according to Democratic Party Rep. Kim Jin-pyo.
Under a 1975 arrangement with the U.S., the South had stored the ammunition in a military airport in Suwon, just south of Seoul. The arrangement had long been plagued by public concerns about its potential radiation risks.
It remains unknown how that arrangement was brought about.
The ammunition is known to have been created to mount on A-10 anti-tank aircraft.
Defense minister visits peacekeeping unit in Lebanon Defense Minister Suh Wook (C) visits the Dongmyeong unit, stationed in Lebanon as part of U.N. peacekeeping operations, on Feb. 18, 2022, in this photo released by the Ministry of National Defense the following day. (Yonhap)
There really isn’t much the ROK can do to stop North Korea’s missile development other than making sure they have adequate ballistic missile defense in place:
This photo, provided by the Ministry of National Defense, shows Defense Minister Suh Wook inspecting the combat readiness of the military’s missile defense during his visit to the Army Missile Command on Jan. 31, 2022. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Defense Minister Suh Wook inspected the combat readiness of the military’s missile command Monday amid a recent series of North Korea’s missile launches, the ministry said.
“Understanding the gravity of the current situation, the troops must maintain a thorough readiness position against any situations,” Suh was quoted as saying during his visit to the Army Missile Command.
He said the military’s ability to detect missiles and respond to possible attacks is more crucial than in the past, as North Korea’s recent provocations pose a serious threat to the peace and security of South Korea and the world.
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong (R) shakes hands with a member of South Korea’s Akh unit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Jan. 17, 2022, in this photo provided by the unit. The troops are stationed in the UAE on a mission to train the Gulf nation’s service members and protect Korean nationals in emergencies. Chung is accompanying President Moon Jae-in on his Middle East trip. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
