Tag: ROK military

That is what the National Human Rights Commission of Korea believes:

The nation’s human rights watchdog recommended the Korean Air Force to stop making new trainees shave their heads, Monday, saying the practice is an excessive restriction of the soldiers’ rights.

Unlike their counterparts in the Korean army and navy, air force recruits are required to completely shave their heads during the month-long training period. Army or navy trainees, on the other hand, are allowed to keep a crew cut up to 5 cm length at the front. 

The complaint was brought to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) last April. The complainant ― the parent of an Air Force trainee at the time ― claimed the head-shaving practice was an encroachment on soldiers’ human rights. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If South Korea’s conscripts get paid minimum wage this will probably lead eventually to a major push to professionalize the force and do away with mandatory service:

Both the public and the government are increasingly aware of soldiers’ right to due monetary compensation, shifting away from considering military service as a statutory civic duty without adequate financial return, experts say. 

“There’s the growing public understanding that we can no longer urge soldiers to serve active duty out of their allegiance or commitment to the country,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University.

Besides, the intense debate regarding the legal minimum wage here has had an impact, he said. 

“We’ve recently had and continue to see a heated debate about setting the minimum wage, and while doing that, I think, we’ve come across the military sector as well — whether conscripted soldiers are paid right doing what they do.” 

Starting this year, sergeants will receive an increased monthly stipend of 540,900 won ($466). Corporals and privates will receive slightly less. The hike marks a 33 percent on-year jump. 

That is about 40 percent of the country’s minimum monthly wage in 2017. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Something to remember is that a Patriot battery is not going to protect Seoul against North Korea’s artillery which is the real defense problem for the nation’s capitol:

A Patriot surface-to-air missile battery has recently been installed on Mount Bukak near Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul, according to political sources, Tuesday. The battery system reportedly consists of a launcher for PAC-2 (Patriot advanced capability-2) missiles and another one for PAC-3 missiles.

The deployment of the unit in Seoul is aimed at strengthening the defense of the capital. The plan was devised after South Korea allowed the United States to deploy a terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) battery in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province in 2017. While the THAAD system has strengthened the defense of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, concerns have been that defense of the capital area was relatively weak.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is what President Moon had to say in commemoration of the 71st anniversary of the ROK Military:

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday pledged to build an unassailable military force capable of supporting peace building on the peninsula in remarks at a ceremony to commemorate Korea’s 71st Armed Forces Day.

The ceremony took place for the first time at an Air Force base in Daegu, home to the Air Force’s main combat force of F-15K jets, and featured an unveiling of the country’s new F-35A stealth fighter jets recently acquired from the United States.

In an address, Moon commended the military for defending the freedoms of every South Korean to enjoy peace and prosperity and said it was this defensive might that would buttress the country’s efforts to build a permanent peace regime on the peninsula.

“Peace should not be something to maintain but to create,” Moon said, according to a Blue House translation. “The impenetrable security of our armed forces underpins dialogue and cooperation, enabling us to embark on a bold journey toward permanent peace.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Standards will soon drop for ROK Army conscription:

The South Korean military said Sunday it plans to lower the bar for the conscription of active duty soldiers, as the country’s population is widely expected to shrink drastically. 

The Ministry of National Defense and the Military Manpower Administration are currently in the process of revising related regulations to lower the physical requirements and standards for active duty troops.

The measure under review comes amid a precipitate fall in the country’s population. The phenomenon is likely to drastically cut the number of men in their 20s to less than 250,000 after 2022, compared to some 350,000 as of 2017, leaving far fewer able-bodied young men eligible for the mandatory military service. 

“The Military Manpower Administration and other related bodies predict a major problem in securing manpower (for active duty troops) from around 2021. They plan to revise (the conscription standards) next year,” a government official said.

Under the revised plan, the government will use a new set of medical standards that are less strict than those currently applied, such as those on body mass index and high blood pressure. 

The new standards are likely to be finalized in early 2021, and the military will continue to take steps to gradually further loosen the requirements, according to the official. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is good to see that more women are able to advance their careers in the ROK military:

When it comes to promoting gender equality in military barracks, some might think it is about giving preferential treatment to female personnel. 

Kang Seo-yeon, a chief petty officer of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy, realized this after an article spotlighting her service received comments to such effect online. 

“After all, we are all service members whether we are male or female,” Kang said. “Female NCOs in the military can often be seen as a special case when they should rather be seen as competent, just like their male colleagues.” 

For Navy service personnel, serving in a remote area or on a ship on a maritime mission helps their careers. While her husband is also a Navy chief petty officer serving on the ROKS Chungbuk (FFG-816) in the Second Fleet based at Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Kang chose to serve at a naval base on Deokjeok Island off the western coast of Incheon this year ― her 11th in the Navy. Before enlisting in the Navy she served four years in the Army as she always wanted to be in the military after graduating from high school. 

Kang, now raising her four-year-old son on Deokjeok Island, said she can balance her work and childcare through the military’s childcare support policies. 

In South Korea, all able-bodied men must serve 18 to 22 months in the military but no mandatory military service is required of women. They can join the military as non-commissioned, or commissioned officer if they graduate from military academies or pass national qualification tests to join the military. 

Media focus on female personnel has often been on them taking certain positions for the first time that had not been “allowed” before, largely due to the perception that women would find it hard to serve on such missions. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link about various female servicemembers that have filled leadership roles for the first time in the ROK military.

I would love just once to have someone in the media ask who the foreign infiltrators are that are threatening to invade Dokdo:

The South Korean armed forces launched a two-day military exercise to defend the easternmost islets of Dokdo on Sunday amid growing tensions over trade and their shared history, in a show of its staunch defense stance against Japan’s repeated claims to sovereignty over the cluster of rocks in the East Sea.

The Navy announced that the drill involves Navy, Air Force and Army forces, such as naval warships and aircraft, as well as Army and Marine Corp troops.

“Indeed, it’s an exercise to guard our sovereignty and territory,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said at a press briefing.

She added that it’s a regular training and asked media not to attach excessive “political” meaning to it.

The drills have been held twice a year, usually in June and December, to better fend off possible foreign infiltrations to the rocky outcroppings and the surrounding waters.

Yonhap

The closest thing to a “foreign infiltration” that has happened on Dokdo was back in 2006 the Japanese said they were going to have a ship full of scientists conduct an underwater survey of the ocean in the vicinity of Dokdo which they never ended up doing.

Meanwhile in recent months you have China claiming Korean territory and flying bombers over it and the Russians have actively violated Korean airspace over Dokdo with their war planes and there was never a rush to conduct a military exercise in response.

Here are the defense upgrades that the ROK government plans to invest in:

 South Korea plans to add two more ground-based anti-missile early warning radars and begin building three Aegis-equipped destroyers in the next five years in an effort to better detect and intercept incoming missiles from North Korea, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

The plan was one of the key projects that the ministry unveiled in its five-year defense blueprint for 2020-2024 amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s missile capabilities in the wake of a series of test-firings of what Pyongyang claimed were new weapons. (……..)

It will also seek to enhance its multi-layered interception capabilities by deploying the improved version of interceptors — Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 and Cheolmae-II missiles, while wrapping up the development of L-SAM, a long-range surface-to-air missile.

With a goal to boost its “strategic target strike” capabilities against nuclear and missile facilities, the ministry vowed to secure more precision-guided missiles to be launched from the ground, the sea, submarines and fighter jets.

The development of additional non-lethal weapons will also be pushed for, such as electromagnetic pulse bombs and blackout ones, to neutralize North Korea’s electric power system in contingencies, according to the ministry. 

In order to “significantly” boost reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities of its own, the ministry also vowed to deploy five military satellites by 2023 and multiple mid- and high-altitude drones over the next five years. South Korea plans to add two more ground-based anti-missile early warning radars and begin building three Aegis-equipped destroyers in the next five years in an effort to better detect and intercept incoming missiles from North Korea, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

The plan was one of the key projects that the ministry unveiled in its five-year defense blueprint for 2020-2024 amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s missile capabilities in the wake of a series of test-firings of what Pyongyang claimed were new weapons. (……..)

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but does anyone really think the Moon administration will purchase all these capabilities? This announcement almost sounds like a negotiating tactic to stop the Trump administration from demanding that the ROK pay more for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance.