(LEAD) Military advised to establish joint operations command to prepare for wartime control transfer

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(LEAD) military-reform

(LEAD) Military advised to establish joint operations command to prepare for wartime control transfer

(ATTN: ADDS details throughout)

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) -- A special advisory committee tasked with reforming the military has called for establishing a joint operations command as South Korea pushes for a handover of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

The recommendation by the committee, comprising civilian, government and military officials, comes as South Korea seeks to achieve the conditions-based OPCON handover from Washington within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term ending in 2030.

"(The committee) suggested establishing a joint operations command for unifying the command structure and enhancing the completion of wartime and peacetime operational command," the ministry said in a release.

Under the plan, the envisioned command is expected to spearhead the military's operational function currently led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The JCS will instead focus on other roles, such as establishing military strategy, building military power and dispatching military units for overseas deployment.

As part of the structural reform, the military was also advised to redefine the role and mission of the Strategic Command to ensure its strategic autonomy and underscored the need for launching a space command to respond to changes in the space security landscape and future warfare trends.

The Drone Operations Command was advised to be scrapped in consideration of overlapping features with respective functions within military branches, according to the ministry.

Addressing deterrence against North Korean threats, the committee called for the early deployment of key assets, such as high-power, high-precision anti-ballistic missiles and a long-range surface-to-air missile (L-SAM) interception system, as well as military satellites.

The committee also called for an annual average of a 10 percent hike in the defense research and development budget for cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, defense semiconductors and robotics, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, the committee also proposed rebuilding the military, as former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid in late 2024 has led to a massive dismissal of involved senior military officers.

The committee called for revising military law to reflect more detailed rules on assessing whether an order is legitimate and exempting those who defied unlawful orders from their superiors from punishment.

Also included among the measures are scaling down the commanding authority of the martial law commander in the event of a martial law imposition.

"The defense ministry plans to take into account the details announced by the committee in the defense reform policy following a review of its validity," ministry spokesperson Chung Binna said in a press briefing.

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