Page 85 - 2020 Defence White Paper

MND. Around 20 to 30 countries participate in the Cyber Working Group every
year to share the status of cyber-threats and also to maintain active exchanges, such
as introducing cybersecurity policies and systems of each country. The MND will
continue to develop the Cyber Working Group into a major multilateral consultative
body in the field of defense cyber-cooperation, strengthening the cyber-capabilities
of the participating countries and building trust among them. Moreover, since 2018,
the MND has participated in the Experts’ Working Group on Cyber Security in the
ADMM-Plus, which consists of 10 ASEAN countries plus 8 countries including Chapter 3
the ROK and the US and has been conducting tabletop exercises (TTX) to share
national cybersecurity policies and strengthen crisis management skills in the event
of cyber-threats. From 2020 to 2023, the ROK will undertake the task of co-chairing
the Expert Working Group on Cyber Security with Malaysia to identify cooperation
tasks of developing cybersecurity-related policy capacity and technological
capability of member states and to generate outcomes that will strengthen
international partnerships with the ASEAN and the ASEAN Plus countries.

2. Establishing a Posture to Prevent and Counter Domestic and
Overseas Terrorism

Threats of Domestic and Recently, the total number of terrorism incidents
Overseas Terrorism has decreased due to the US military’s Operation
Inherent Resolve and the impact of COVID-19.

However, the threats of terrorism around the world–including the unrest in the
Middle East due to the US–Iran conflict and retaliatory acts of terror by ISIS and Al-
Qaeda related to the conflict between France and Islam–are expected to continue.
Until now, there has been no direct attacks by international terrorist organizations
in Korea, yet crimes similar to acts of terror have occurred, such as constructing
improvised explosive devices and terror threats using drones are also increasing.

Developing Policies, Institutions, To effectively counter the growing threat
and Systems Against Terrorism of terrorism, the ROK Armed Forces is
striving to enhance their counterterrorism
system and operational capabilities of counterterrorism operations units. Through the
revision of the "MND Directive on Counterterrorism Activities" in 2019 and 2020,
the ROK Armed Forces has developed a counterterrorism safety activities system
for handling major national and military events. More dedicated organizations such

Chapter 3. Safeguarding Peace by Establishing a Robust Defense Posture Against Omnidirectional Security Threats 83