Category: ROK Military

The ROK Air Force is very luck no one was killed in this accidental bombing strike because this could have been far more tragic:

The number of houses damaged in last week’s accidental bombing of a northern village has grown from 58 to 142 following a second survey, the local government said Sunday.

The village in Pocheon, some 40 kilometers north of Seoul, suffered large-scale damage after two KF-16 fighter jets “abnormally” dropped eight MK-82 bombs outside a training range during live-fire drills on Thursday.

Initially, 58 houses were reported damaged, but the number grew to 99 as of Saturday morning, and following a second survey, grew further to 142, according to the Pocheon municipal government.

Twenty-two households have evacuated their homes, while another nine households have returned following partial restoration work.

The number of injured civilians has also increased by two to 19.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Stars & Stripes is reporting that the wrong coordinates were entered causing the accidental bombing:

Initial investigations found the pilot of one of the KF-16s entered wrong coordinates for a bombing site. Officials said the pilots of two KF-16s had more than 200-400 hours of flying time. Lee said they likely piloted KF-16s only two to three years.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but these pilots did not have a lot of flight hours which I would not be surprised contributed to this accident.

The same ROK general involved with consulting a shaman on many occasions before the failed martial law decree also apparently gave orders based on movie screenplays:

Noh Sang-won, the former commander at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command under investigation for his role in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched imposition of martial law, once ordered disposal of his own men with explosives, an Army brigadier general formerly under Noh’s command said Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Park Min-woo, who served at the KDIC under Noh, told the National Assembly that Noh used to give orders that “were based on movie screenplays.” During Park’s time as the deputy chief of the KDIC’s Headquarters of Intelligence Detachment, he used to oversee espionage missions against North Korea.

Park’s remarks were made in a parliamentary hearing to illustrate Noh’s character, not Noh’s actual role in the plotting and execution of Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law plan.

“In 2016, I was working on an important mission against North Korea for six months, and Commander Noh instructed me to get rid of the agents after the mission,” he told the special parliamentary committee investigating the president for allegedly leading an insurrection. “When I asked how I would do it, he told me to blow them up. The method was to make them wear explosive belts that could be remotely detonated.”

“I cursed at him to myself. … He wasn’t an expert in special missions, so all I had to do was return (the agents) safely (without carrying out Noh’s orders),” he said.

Park feuded with Noh in August last year, in which Noh supposedly threw objects at him and Park filed for complaint against Noh for assault. Noh then claimed that he had been subject to verbal abuse by Park and filed a complaint against him.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but General Noh appears to have ascended to the top ranks of toxic leaders.

The flying of the drone over Pyongyang is clearly not a secret any more:

Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo voiced concerns Tuesday over a potential probe into allegations that the South Korean military flew drones over Pyongyang last year, citing the need to maintain ambiguity in responding to North Korea’s claim.

The JCS chairman made the remark as he dismissed suspicions raised by the opposition bloc that the military engaged in activities aimed at inducing North Korea’s provocations ahead of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law imposition last month.

The military has maintained its stance of neither confirming nor denying the alleged drone infiltration, which Pyongyang first made public in October, citing operational security.

“Saying that we cannot confirm is a strategy to pressure the counterpart, limit its options and cause confusion by keeping our secret,” Kim said in a special parliamentary committee session into Yoon’s martial law imposition.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Korean left seems more upset about the ROK military flying a drone over Pyongyang and doesn’t care about all the drones and shit balloons that North Korea has flown over the ROK in the recent past.

Considering all the past North Korean drone incursion issues the ROK has had they need to get better at detecting and countering these drones:

A pair of military exercises over South Korea emphasized air defense and ground support this week as 2024 nears its final days. The country’s military branches trained Thursday afternoon to improve the nation’s air defense response to North Korean drone intrusions, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The joint exercise, announced Wednesday, involved a simulated attack by multiple drones over the East Sea, or Sea of Japan, and the Yellow Sea, and rear areas, according to a news release by the Joint Chiefs. “This training will simulate responses to potential provocations involving multiple small North Korean drones infiltrating South Korean land and sea, including operating a large number of small drones as virtual enemy aircraft,” the release states.

Units of the South Korean army, navy and air force worked to detect, identify and simulate the downing of small drones, according to the Joint Chiefs.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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.

This is the right thing to do considering North Korea’s capability to easily target one airbase with ballistic missiles. Spreading the F-35’s over multiple bases complicates the Kim regime’s targeting:

The South Korean air force plans to disperse its newest fleet of F-35A Lightning II stealth jets throughout the country, rather than at just one base, to better respond to North Korean threats, according to local media. Seoul agreed to purchase the 20 F-35As, expected to be operational by 2027, from the United States for nearly $2.9 billion in December.

It also agreed to buy $271 million worth of munitions for the aircraft that month. The country received its first 40 F-35As from a $7 billion deal in 2019. The new aircraft will be assigned to several, unspecified installations instead of operating out of Cheongju Air Base, which is home to the current F-35 fleet, unnamed officials said in a Yonhap News report Monday.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Maybe South Korea should mass produce these missles and sell them to Ukraine?:

South Korea’s military test-fired a short-range ballistic missile Thursday to demonstrate it could “respond to any North Korean provocations” following the communist regime’s recent missile launches.

The South Korean Missile Strategy Command fired a Hyunmoo-2 missile from South Chungcheong Province, about 65 miles southwest of Seoul, to demonstrate the command’s ability to make “precision strikes against the enemy’s origin of provocation,” according to a news release Friday from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The domestically made weapon flew roughly 125 miles to strike a simulated target in the Yellow Sea, also known as the West Sea, the Joint Chiefs said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I argue the ROK military is not seeing a rise in sexual misconduct, but instead a rise in females willing to report it:

The number of reports of sexual misconduct against female service members has surged in recent years, increasing by more than sixfold from 2020 to 2023, a lawmaker said Wednesday, citing data from the defense ministry.

The number of such reports stood at 135 in 2020 before reaching 366 in 2021, 673 in 2022, 867 in 2023 and 604 as of September this year, according to the data submitted to Rep. Hwang Hee of the main opposition Democratic Party. 

Of the total 2,645 cases over the period, 1,730 were reports of sexual harassment, while 915 were those on other sexual violence, such as rape and sexual assault.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.