Category: ROK Military

Here is news of a tragic training accident that occurred up in Choerwon:

One Army soldier was killed and six others were injured Friday in an explosion during an artillery firing drill, the military said.

The blast occurred on the shooting range of a front-line Army unit in Cheorwon, some 88 kilometers north of Seoul, at 3:19 p.m., according to an Army officer.

Seven servicemen were rushed to a hospital and one of them, a 27-year-old sergeant first class, died during the transport, the officer said.

“An unidentified explosion took place during the drill, injuring some people,” he said. A probe into the cause of the incident is underway, he added.

Flames erupted from inside one of the 10 K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers during the training session, injuring the seven soldiers attending it, according to the officer.  [Yonhap]

So far these are all just allegations, but it seems like the knives are out to make General Park an example of due to the current public backlash against him.  I guess we will see what happens:

A four-star South Korean general and his wife have been accused of treating soldiers like “slaves,” prompting calls for measures to improve conditions for the nation’s conscripts.

Soldiers serving at Gen. Park Chan-ju’s official residence were ordered to remain on-call around the clock and wear electronic bracelets that vibrated whenever family members called on them, the defense ministry said.

They also had to pick up golf balls, take care of gardening, do laundry and chauffeur the couple’s children in a private car, the ministry said, adding it is still investigating other allegations.

Park’s wife also has been accused of treating the soldiers as though she was their commander and subjecting them to verbal and physical abuse.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

SK declares radar designed to locate NK artillery guns for counter-attack to be combat-ready: to be deployed in 2018 https://t.co/nphWLD7vXV

— Noon in Korea (@NoonInKorea) August 6, 2017

The ROK military likely has personnel planning for all kinds of contingencies, but people are living in a fantasy land if they think President Moon is any where near authorizing a preemptive strike on North Korea:

According to a report in South Korea’s Munhwa Ilbo newspaper, which cites an unidentified government official, South Korea’s military is preparing a “surgical strike” scenario that could wipe out North Korean command and missile and nuclear facilities following an order by S.Korea’s President Moon Jae-in. Munhwa adds that the military is to report the scenario to presidential office after completing it as early as August 1.

As the report details, South Korea’s Special Forces are preparing a special strike op which would be launched in response to President Moon Jae-In’s order to remove the North Korean leadership in case of emergency. This operation is taking place in addition to separate preparations currently conducted by the country’s military forces.

Targeted by the surgical strike would be North Korea’s core facilities. As part of the operation, South Korea’s forces would launch Taurus cruise missiles from F-15 fighters, which would be able to strike all key facilities in Pyongyang and can also strike the office of the Chairman of the Labor Party, Kim Jong Eun, at the Pyongyang Labor Party headquarters.  [Zero Hedge]

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think the North Koreans will be too impressed by this news considering they are developing nuclear warheads:

The South Korean government is pushing to revise the missile guidelines developed with the United States to double the maximum weight of warheads on Seoul’s ballistic missiles from the current 500 kilograms to counter growing threats from the North, sources said Monday.

The Seoul government proposed the revision in line with the Seoul-Washington summit last month, and is known to be planning to begin talks regarding the issue during the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) and the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) later this year, they said.

In 2012, the allies revised the ballistic missile guidelines, allowing Seoul to extend the maximum allowable missile range to 800 kilometers from the previous limit of 300 km, against North’s advancing nuclear and ballistic missile capacities. Under the deal, Seoul can load up to 500 kg of warheads on missiles with the range of 800 km.

“Our military is reviewing various measures to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations,” a government official said, declining to comment on the possible revision.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know the details for each case so maybe it is bullying, but I have to wonder how much of this bullying is actually strict military discipline being put on mandatory service draftees that are not used to such discipline?:

The recent suicide of a conscript in 22 Infantry Division has again put the spotlight on the division’s cycle of suicides because of alleged bullying.

The private first class jumped to his death on July 19 during a visit to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital.

In a suicide note, he said that every moment of his life had been agony. He apologized to his mother for his actions.

There has been a public outcry since Military Human Rights Korea (MHRK) claimed that the infantry division knew about the bullying, but did little to stop the soldier from killing himself.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Navy recruits toss an assistant instructor into the air in a ceremony to mark the completion of their training at a boot camp in Jinhae on the south coast on July 7, 2017. (Photo courtesy of the Navy) (Yonhap)

If you ever wondered how much a South Korean conscript to include the KATUSA soldiers assigned to US military units make, the answer is not much:

Conscript soldiers’ pay will increase in 2018 to 30 percent of this year’s minimum wage of an annual 1,352,230 won ($1,189.8). This means all draftees will receive 405,669 won, almost double the current 216,000 won. The announcement was made Monday at a regular press briefing by the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, President Moon Jae-in’s de facto power transition team.

Pay will be incrementally increased to 40 percent of the minimum wage by 2020, and reach 50 percent by 2022, equivalent to 540,892 won and 676,115 won, respectively.

The move is part of “fulfilling (Moon’s) national defense plan to increase soldiers’ pay,” committee spokesman Park Kwong-on said. President Moon had vowed better treatment for conscripted soldiers ― all able-bodied Korean men aged between 18 and 35 must serve in the military for up to 21 months.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but diving $1,189 annual salary by 12 months means the ROK conscripts are making roughly $99 a month.  The cost savings from mandatory service is why the ROK military will never become a volunteer only military.

I wonder if the jets have “Dokdo is Our Land” painted on the side of them 😉  :

Six South Korean F-16 jet fighters have made an emergency landing at a U.S. military base in Tokyo after a refueling aircraft malfunctioned, U.S. Forces Japan officials said Thursday.

U.S. Forces Japan spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Kenneth Hoffman said the aircraft are headed to Alaska to participate in the annual Red Flag exercise.

The emergency landing was forced by “a mechanical issue with an air-to-air refueler that was scheduled to support their movement,” Hoffman said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

The ROK Naval Captain is claiming that the sex was consensual, but regardless the Captain shouldn’t be sleeping with a junior officer in the first place.  However, I am not sure if the ROK military has any guidelines against such behavior; if not it should:

A female Navy lieutenant, under the purview of the Navy’s headquarters at the Gyeryongdae compound, was found dead in her home on 5:40 p.m. Wednesday.

While the naval military police view the incident as a suicide, they arrested a male navy captain under allegations of having sexually assaulted the lieutenant the night before.

Her colleagues attempted to reach her by phone after noting her absence in the workplace.

When they went to her home and found she had apparently hanged herself, they contacted military police.

Near her body was a memo saying, “I guess I’m leaving empty-handed like this,” and “By tomorrow, I won’t be a person of this world.”

“There are no signs of forced entry,” military police said.

“She told me she was raped by a superior,” a friend told her family, who then told police.

The military police arrested a naval captain who was at the domicile.

According to naval military police, the two officers drank into the night at a departmental dinner. Police suspect the captain raped her after she lost consciousness.

“I can’t remember clearly cause I was drunk,” he said, adding that while they had sex, he maintains it was consensual.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.