Page 66 - 2018 Defense White Paper

defense operations led by the heads of the local government, the civilian–government–military–

police information-sharing system has been built and operated while the readiness posture is
being reinforced through the development of operation plans and response manuals for various
types of provocations as well as periodical integrated defense exercises and training. In addition,

to swiftly counter diverse threats of terrorism, the military special forces for counterterrorism
and dif ferent types of counterterrorism operation units have been designated, and the posture to
jointly execute and support counterterrorism operations with relevant government organizations

is being established.
The ROK Armed Forces has also set up a collaboration system with the Ministry of Science
and ICT (MSIT) and updated the crisis response manual for GPS signal disturbance to counter

North Korea’s global positioning system (GPS) jamming attempts. The ROK Armed Forces will
continuously improve its preparedness and response capabilities against cyberattack attempts.

2. Maintaining a Readiness Posture against Aggression

| Enhancing Wartime Operational Capabilities | North Korea continues to maintain and
build up its large conventional force as well as deploy most of its forces south of the Pyongyang–
Wonsan line, maintaining a posture capable of launching surprise attacks and engaging in
lightning war fare without needing to redeploy or adjust additional forces in emergencies.

In preparation for North Korea’s threats of a full-scale war, the ROK Armed Forces is
continuously enhancing ROK–U.S. bilateral operation plans; verifying and supplementing

them through the annual ROK–U.S. theater-level combined command post exercises (CPX), 13)
including the Key Resolve (KR) and Ulchi-Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise 14) ; and improving
wartime operational capabilities through joint and combined field training exercises (FTX),
including the Foal Eagle (FE) training and Hoguk training. In 2018, certain combined exercises

13) It is an exercise for mission execution by commanding officers and staff organizations of different echelon levels.
During the exercise, they practice the relocation and operation of a command post as well as the procedures
of command and staff activities under various scenarios while maintaining communications. They also learn
operational plans and the application of standard operating procedures (SOPs).
14) It is a combined exercise conducted for the review and reinforcement of plans for wartime actions. It takes place
in parallel with the government’s Ulchi Exercise.

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