Category: ROK Military

Fortunately no one was killed by whatever caused this explosion in Ulsan:

An explosion at a military base in South Korea’s southeastern city Tuesday injured more than 20 soldiers, authorities said.

The blast of unknown cause took place at around 11:50 a.m. at a training camp for reservists in Ulsan, some 410 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the authorities.

The injured soldiers, some of whom were burned, were taken to nearby hospitals. No casualties were reported.

No training took place at the time of the incident, according to authorities. All the injured were soldiers on active duty, mostly in their early 20s.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I would think the last thing the North Koreans would want to do is create a provocation that would distract attention away from their great enemy Park Geun-hye being impeached and removed from office:

South Korea’s defense chief called on the military Thursday to remain vigilant as North Korea might carry out a provocation amid the ongoing political crisis involving President Park Geun-hye.

On Friday, 300 lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties are set to vote on an impeachment bill against Park. The country has been engulfed by a massive corruption scandal involving Park and her close confidante since late October.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo made the comments during his visit to the 3rd Army headquarters, one of the country’s three field armies in charge of protecting Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul from any military threats by North Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This photo from LIG Nex1 on Dec. 2, 2016, shows the “Hyungung,” a man-portable anti-tank system that has gone into production. The company said it signed a 32.7 billion-won (US$27.9 million) deal with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration a day before for initial production of the guided rocket system. (Yonhap)

Army appoints first female helicopter pilot instructor https://t.co/jYSkD3k9vu

— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) December 4, 2016

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.