Tag: ROK military

To make way for the Presidential office in Yongsan the ROK military’s Joint Chief’s of Staff office will be moving to Southern Seoul:

The South Korean government plans to relocate the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) headquarters to southern Seoul and seeks to construct its new building there by 2026, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

In a parliamentary policy briefing, the ministry made public the relocation plan, as the ministry’s key offices have occupied parts of the current JCS building since the presidential office’s relocation to what used to be the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul’s central district of Yongsan.

Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said that the government plans to move the JCS building to the Capital Defense Command in Namtaeryeong, southern Seoul, in the “mid- and long-term.” 

Lee estimated that the relocation and the construction of the new JCS building may cost between 200 billion won (US$ 157 million) and 300 billion won, much more than initially expected.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I would think the average young Korean male would be furious about the special treatment that celebrities would get with this bill. The celebrities that have already served in the ROK military have already been given largely special treatment as it is:

The ruling and opposition parties have discussed a need for swift review of a bill allowing K-pop superstar BTS and other prominent pop celebrities to substitute their mandatory military service for other public service, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

Rep. Sung Il-jong of the People Power Party, who serves as executive secretary for the parliamentary defense committee, told MBC radio that he and his Democratic Party counterpart recently discussed the need to swiftly review the bill pending in the National Assembly. 

“Since it is a matter related to fairness and national interest, I don’t think there will be any disagreement between the ruling and opposition parties,” Sung said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like there will be a little bit less depleted uranium in South Korea:

South Korea has handed over some 1.1 million rounds of potentially hazardous ammunition stored here for decades to the U.S. military for shipment to the United States, a ruling party lawmaker said Monday.

The country’s Air Force recently sent the depleted uranium ammunition to the U.S. 7th Air Force based in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, to ship them to the U.S. by sea by mid-April, according to Democratic Party Rep. Kim Jin-pyo.

Under a 1975 arrangement with the U.S., the South had stored the ammunition in a military airport in Suwon, just south of Seoul. The arrangement had long been plagued by public concerns about its potential radiation risks.

It remains unknown how that arrangement was brought about.

The ammunition is known to have been created to mount on A-10 anti-tank aircraft.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

There really isn’t much the ROK can do to stop North Korea’s missile development other than making sure they have adequate ballistic missile defense in place:

 South Korea’s Defense Minister Suh Wook inspected the combat readiness of the military’s missile command Monday amid a recent series of North Korea’s missile launches, the ministry said.

“Understanding the gravity of the current situation, the troops must maintain a thorough readiness position against any situations,” Suh was quoted as saying during his visit to the Army Missile Command.

He said the military’s ability to detect missiles and respond to possible attacks is more crucial than in the past, as North Korea’s recent provocations pose a serious threat to the peace and security of South Korea and the world.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

FM meets Korea troops in UAE

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong (R) shakes hands with a member of South Korea’s Akh unit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Jan. 17, 2022, in this photo provided by the unit. The troops are stationed in the UAE on a mission to train the Gulf nation’s service members and protect Korean nationals in emergencies. Chung is accompanying President Moon Jae-in on his Middle East trip. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

This is what the leftist agitators have caused from their original bogus THAAD protests; now everyone thinks these missile defense radars rain radiation over everyone located near them which is not true. This is like the new fan death myth:

The Air Force launched a surprise operation on Tuesday to install an anti-missile radar on a mountain in the southeastern city of Busan, sparking angry protests from residents concerned about potential health hazards from the radar’s electromagnetic waves.

Police clashed with a group of protesters early Tuesday on Mt. Jang in the city, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where the Air Force began installing a Green Pine land-based radar at around 6 a.m. Four people were arrested following repeated dispersion orders.

“We condemn the defense ministry for pushing ahead with the radar installation which the residents object to,” a representative of the protesting group said. 

The Air Force did not notify local authorities of the operation in advance in an apparent attempt to avoid obstruction from local resident and activists, who have raised concerns over potentially harmful effects of electromagnetic waves from the radar.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but probably the most offensive thing about the anti-THAAD protesters is that it is based on lies that the electromagnetic waves from the radar are going to cause cancer and kill crops. These Green Pine protesters are falling for the same propaganda.

If the residents want to go measure electromagnetic waves they can do it right now.  They can purchase their own detection device and stand at their homes or farms and see what electromagnetic waves they detect.  They are not going to detect anything though because a group of Korean reporters were invited to a THAAD site and have already measured electromagnetic waves and found nothing.  What is even dumber about this is that South Korea already has for years multiple Green Pine radars installed. It would be very easy to see if people are getting cancer and crops are dying in those locations.

This is simply not in my backyard protests that likely would not be happening if the leftist agitators had not protested and promoted false propaganda about the Korean THAAD site.

It appears those sensitive about being overweight are unhappy with the ROK military for trying to encourage young people to lose weight so they can serve in the military:

The Military Manpower Administration (MMA) has taken flak over a promotional video that critics say disparages those assigned to non-combat duties for their mandatory military service due to health or other reasons.

On Nov. 5, the MMA posted video footage on its YouTube channel in which an active service member on leave talks over a meal with his friends, who haven’t been enlisted yet, about life in the barracks.

The problematic part was about the service member’s physical grade. While all able-bodied men in Korea must serve in the military, only those who receive grades of 1 to 3 in their heath examination serve in the military, while those who receive a grade of 4 are assigned to less physically demanding duties, mostly public service positions at public organizations, and those who get a grade of 5 are exempt from duty.

In the video, the man said that he was initially given a grade of 4, but joined the military after losing weight through an MMA program and improving his grade. The project helps those who receive a grade 4 or 5, due to extreme obesity or other health reasons, to get support from hospitals, fitness clubs or public health centers, to lose weight or improve their condition if they want to serve in combat positions.

The man said, “I applied for the project because I thought it fits well with my character,” and the friend replied, “You can proudly call yourself a man only when you fulfill the military service.”

This video has drawn a barrage of criticism for disparaging people who receive grades of 4 or 5 and take public service positions instead of combat duty.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the ongoing CCPT exercise:

South Korean troops conducting a joint, computer-simulated exercise with their American counterparts were all vaccinated and tested for COVID-19 before training began, a military official said Monday. 

A South Korean Ministry of National Defense official speaking on the customary condition of anonymity told Stars and Stripes that due to service members being in close proximity with each other, “it was very important for all of them to get vaccinated.”

The two countries are conducting a combined command-post training Aug. 16 to 26. Rather than a large-scale field exercise involving thousands of combat troops, this exercise will primarily focus on computer simulations.

U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Lee Peters, citing the command’s policy, did not comment on whether American forces participating in the joint training were all vaccinated. 

However, Peters said USFK “can reassure you that we remain aligned with [the defense ministry] on aggressive COVID mitigation measures including conducting training with minimal essential personnel and in distributed locations.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the most interesting thing I read in the article was that 93% of the 550,000 ROK troops have received the vaccine though it is voluntary.