Tag: ROK Army

This will be a big upgrade to the ROK Army’s combat capabilities if they are able to field these additional K2 tanks which are a pretty impressive piece of military equipment:

South Korea’s military is pushing to field some 100 additional units of the locally built K2 Black Panther tanks to strengthen frontline defense against North Korea, a military official said Thursday.

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) submitted the request citing the need for 100 or so more K2 tanks in October and the Ministry of National Defense is carrying out a verification of the demand,” the military official said.

K2 is the South Korean Army’s main battle tank (MBT) and has been produced since 2013. The tank developed in the country has been reaching frontline units starting in 2014, with a total of 206 K2 tanks having been deployed or are in the process of being delivered.

The additional production plan, if accepted, would push up the number of the South Korean military’s fleet to more than 300 tanks. The K2s augment the K1 battle tanks that are in widespread service among the country’s military.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Soldiers remove broken vinyl greenhouses in Goseong County, Gangwon Province, on May 8, 2016. Some 540 of the total 772 greenhouses in the region were damaged by strong winds that struck the region on Wednesday. The Army’s 22nd Division has deployed some 700 troops to help get rid of the damaged greenhouses. (Yonhap)

A group of domestically produced tanks, dubbed “Heukpyo,” goes through an underwater river-crossing exercise in the South Han River in Yeoju, east of Seoul, on April 19, 2016. (Yonhap)

Fortunately this accidental discharge did not turn into a larger incident with North Korea:

A South Korean machine gun was recently accidentally discharged toward North Korea, the military in Seoul said Tuesday, though it remained unclear where the shots had landed.

A South Korean military official said two shots from a K-6 heavy machine gun were accidentally fired from a guard post (GP) inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the eastern front on Sunday. The official said the misfire happened during maintenance, but no injuries were reported.

On three occasions, South Korea broadcast messages to North Korea that the shots had been accidentally fired.

“The North Korean military didn’t respond to our messages and didn’t show any particular movement,” the South Korean official added. “We don’t believe the shots reached their GP.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Soldiers line up for consulting at a job fair for soldiers finishing their mandatory military service this year, at KINTEX Convention Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Mar. 30. (Hankyoreh)

The UK’s Guardian has an article published that describes what life is like for ROK Army soldiers tasked with patrolling the DMZ:

Because the border is supposed to be a “demilitarised zone”, it takes some creative accounting to allow the soldiers to be posted there.

“All of the rangers are given a chest patch that says ‘DMZ police’ and an armband that says ‘military police,’” Shin said. “As as long as we wear the armband before entering the DMZ, no matter how armed we are, we are nothing but the ‘armed police’ not the armed ‘military’ force.”

It’s a posting that comes with many hazards, not just North Korean ones. Instead of four seasons there are just three at the DMZ: “the steaming summer, cold winter and the ice age when everything freezes,” he said.

Shin and his fellow soldiers had to endure temperatures that dropped below -19C (-2.2F), with endless, biting winds blowing in from the North.

“The wind was so strong it could literally blow you around,” said Shin. “Most general outposts are on the top of the mountain, directly facing the wind.”  [The Guardian]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/staffordnetnz/status/712486979192037376

Male cadets raise their fists in a gesture of solidarity during a graduation ceremony at the Armed Forces Nursing Academy in the central city of Daejeon on Feb. 24, 2016. It marks the first time male cadets have graduated from the nursing school. (Yonhap)

Wee Sung-ho (R), president of the Korea National Defense University (KNDU), and Frederick Padilla, president of the National Defense University of the U.S., shake hands after signing a memorandum of understanding in Seoul on Feb. 24, 2016, for academic exchanges between their institutions. The agreement covers exchanges of teaching staff and students, conducting joint studies and sharing of research findings. (Photo courtesy of KNDU) (Yonhap)

Condolences to the friends and families of these ROK soldiers killed in this helicopter crash.  Judging by the below picture it looks like it crashed right outside the wall of the military base:

A South Korean military helicopter crashed in an eastern province on Monday, killing three of the four soldiers on board, officials said.

The helicopter went down in a farming field in the city of Chuncheon in the eastern province of Gangwon during a checkout flight, defense and army officials said.

The officials said that all four soldiers aboard the helicopter were initially rescued after the crash, but that three of them died while being treated in hospitals.

They said no casualties on the ground have been reported. The cause of the crash is under investigation.  [Washington Post via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link.