Page 75 - 2018 Defense White Paper

group was renamed as the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Committee (CWMDC) in

2017, and their policy consultations have been strengthened since.
Moreover, the ROK and the United States conducted a bilateral bio-defense exercise known
as the Able Response (AR) exercise on an annual basis between 2011 and 2017 to test the

national-level integrated response system to counter bio-threats in the two countries. In 2017,
the Adaptive Shield exercise—a bilateral counter-CBRN exercise—replaced the AR exercise,
expanding the scope of the exercise to all areas of CBRN. The Adaptive Shield exercise is a

military tabletop exercise conducted under the supervision of the ROK–U.S. Combined Forces
Command (CFC) to test the crisis response system regarding potential CBRN crises taking
Chapter 3
place on the Korean Peninsula and to enhance the national-level response capabilities. Through

this exercise, the two countries have been developing concrete measures to jointly counter CBRN
threats and improving the response system for cooperation among relevant organizations in the
event of large-scale damage.
Furthermore, to improve bilateral response capabilities against WMD, the ROK and the

United States are pursuing cooperation and exchanges between the two countries’ CBRN
defense commands and relevant organizations in various fields.

Meanwhile, as the ROK is a state party to both the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), The ROK Armed Forces is carrying out diverse
activities to implement the treaties. The MND’s arms control verif ication group, in particular,
worked as the national escort body during the periodical inspection of military institutions

by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that verifies the
implementation of the CWC by its state parties. Such activities helped enhance the credibility
and transparency of the ROK’s compliance with and implementation of international treaties.

In addition, since 2005, ROK CBRN Defense
Command has annually conducted the OPCW’s
international anti–chemical weapons training

course for Asian state parties including the
Philippines, India, and Bangladesh. The regional
assistance and protection course is designed to

prepare participating nations against chemical
terrorism and accidents involving chemical
A field practice in the OPCW international anti–
weapons. chemical weapons training (September 2018)

Section 2 Reinforcing Response Capabilities against Nuclear and WMD Threats 73