The new plan is supposed to transform South Korea's military by 2030, the ministry said.
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| Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin announces the Defense Reformation Plan 307 at a press briefing room in the ministry in Seoul on Mar. 8. |
'The Defense Reformation Plan 307 is entitled according to the date the report was made to the president on the 7th," Kim said during a press conference. "Main priorities, including strengthening cohesion of the armed forces, obtaining active deterrence capabilities and beefing up efficiency, are included in the plan."
Kim also said that the plan will be carried out in three stages. The initial stage, which will last for two years from 2011, is going to deal with 37 assignments. The three-year second stage that starts in 2013 will implement 20 tasks. During the last stage between 2016 and 2030, 16 reform agenda will be carried out.
The minister said "multifunctional" and "high-efficiency" were the key words for the new plan. He also said the nation's military forces had become "bulky and administrative' over the past 20 years since the last restructuring of defense forces in August 1991.
"As a result, we have been unable to respond to realistic security threats in an active manner," said Kim. To cut away dead wood, roughly 60 generals and 1,000 executive positions will be eliminated in the next decade.
Kim said that the plan would reduce the annual budget by 100 billion won ($89.5 million) in labor costs alone, especially with the elimination of high-ranking posts. The number of military personnel would also be reduced to 500,000 from 600,000 by 2020.
The restructuring of military command positions will start this November after a task force is set up in June to propose modifications.
The main priority is to bring cohesion to the three branches of the armed forces, and command positions will be reorganized to form a "combined military." At the center of the reorganized military will be the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which will become the headquarters of the combined military.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will also be given greater administrative power, including personnel affairs.
To reinforce defenses at the western border islands, the military plans to establish a defense command headquarters on the islands in June with the Marines leading the new group.
In order to defend against North Korea's regional provocations and asymmetric threats, order of priority for military strength buildup will be restructured.
"We are planning to adopt high-attitude unmanned reconnaissance plane and beef up surveillance as well as reconnaissance capabilities of enemy's movements," Kim said. "The military is also going to push ahead with Fighter Experimental Project and reinforce the strength of attack and mobile helicopters sharply."
The reformation will be taken to cyberspace as well, as the military plans to defend itself against cyberattacks with a new unit, Kim said, referring to last week's large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Web sites run by the government and private businesses.
ROK MoD