Page 80 - 2018 Defense White Paper

Many countries have recognized the severity of cyber threats and are making much effort to

counter them, including the establishment of cyber command and the creation of a separate
cyber force that is not part of Army, Navy, or Air Force. The MND has chosen and implemented
the “national defense cybersecurity capability enhancement plan” as a task of “Defense Reform

2.0” to restore the people’s trust in the ROK Armed Forces and drastically strengthen the cyber
capabilities of the ROK Armed Forces.
Under the audacious vision to “attain absolute superiority in national defense cyberspace,”

the MND established the strategic objective to accurately, securely and effectively generate,
maintain, and protect the cyberspace, and to ensure a superior utilization of the cyberspace in
the cyber battlef ield in comparison to adversaries’. To achieve this objective, the MND identif ied

strategic tasks in the f ields of organization, manpower, force, and institutional structure as well
as 10 pragmatic tasks.

| Clarifying Each Organization’s Missions and Establishing a Work Structure | The MND

plans to classify military response against a violation of the defense cyberspace as a domain
of “cyber operations” and establish a cyber operation execution system led by the JCS. The

missions and the work structure under this broader plan have been set as follows. The MND
serves as the control tower of cyber policies, while the JCS commands the cyber operations
of the entire military. The Cyber Command plays the role of the unit responsible for the f inal
implementation and execution of the entire armed forces’ cybersecurity and operations. The

headquarters of each branch and the units of each echelon are responsible for cybersecurity and
defensive operations regarding the area and assets under their control.

| Full-Scale Reform of the Cyber Command’s Organization and Functions | The MND
plans to rename the Cyber Command as the “Cyber Operations Command” and designate it as
a joint unit that can carry out cyber operations under the command of the Chairman of the JCS.

The possibility of the Cyber Command’s unlawful political interference has been fundamentally
blocked with the abolishment of its politically controversial psychological warfare function. The
Cyber Command underwent a full-scale reform of its organization and functions so that it can

instead fully focus on its original mission—cyber operations. To ensure real-time cyberspace
situational awareness, preemptive preventions, and proactive responses, the MND plans to
bolster the Cyber Command’s intelligence operation function, reinforce its operation support

78 Chapter 3 Establishing a Robust Defense Posture against Omnidirectional Security Threats