Page 70 - 2020 Defence White Paper

Establishing a Readiness Posture In spite of agreeing to the issues related to
Against Land, Sea, and Airspace the Northern Limit Line (NLL) through
infiltrations and Provocations the Agreement on Reconciliation,
Non-aggression, and Exchanges and
Cooperation (1991) and the Protocol on the Implementation and Observance of
Chapter 2, Nonaggression (1992), North Korea has carried out provocations on land,
at sea, and in the air that nullifies the effectiveness of these agreements. Especially,
North Korea has continuously attempted high-intensity provocations in the northern
waters of the West Sea and the five northwest islands area. The five northwest islands
and the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which is the practical maritime boundary line,
have been defended robustly by the ROK Armed Forces, and the ROK Armed Forces
will continue to firmly adhere to the principle of observing the NLL and will sternly
respond to any type of provocations against the NLL.
With the GOP scientific security systems established in 2016, considerable
progress has been made to the ROK Armed Forces’ security posture, and for any
shortfalls identified while operating the systems, the ROK Armed Forces will
continue to upgrade and improve the systems’ performance in the future thereby
further developing the ROK Armed Forces’ readiness posture against infiltration and
provocations in an evolutionary manner.
The ROK Armed Forces will also establish a robust military readiness posture
through close ROK–US cooperation to deter provocations by North Korea and
to strongly and sternly retaliate in the event of a provocation. At the same time,
through the implementation of the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), the

ROK Armed Forces will provide military support to the various efforts of the ROK
government to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The ROK Armed Forces maintains a surveillance and immediate response posture
that covers the entire Korean peninsula in order to firmly defend the ROK’s entire
territorial land, waters, and airspace in the East Sea, West Sea, and South Sea,
including the northwest islands as well as Marado Island, Ulleungdo Island, and
Dokdo Island. In particular, the ROK Armed Forces maintains a firm commitment
and resolute readiness posture to safeguard Dokdo Island which is evidently the
ROK’s territory–historically, geographically, and according to international laws as
well.
To effectively respond to the changing operational environment, the ROK Armed
Forces will optimize its surveillance, decision-making, and strike systems in the
contact areas on land, at sea, and in the airspace, and continuously bolster its core
fighting capabilities.

68 2020 Defense White Paper