Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Build up ‘3-axis system’ against North Korean nuclear weapons, 2-3 years earlier

Mediated time from the mid-2020s to the early-2020s

In-depth discussion on obtaining a nuclear-powered submarine

Decided to add one more ballistic missile early warning radar

Taurus, an air-to-ground missile, will be added as well

Our military’s ‘3-axis system’ for neutralization of the North’s nuclear and missile provocations will be force-integrated ahead of schedule. We also will be obtaining two ballistic missile early warning radars.

The government, Saenuri Party, member of the National Assembly belonging to the National Defense Committees and relevant officials of Defense Acquisition Program Administration came to an agreement that early promotion of the reinforcement of defense capacity needs to be carried out in order to prepare for North Korean nuclear tests, and agreed to advance the time of 3-axis system creation from the mid-2020s to the early-2020s.

Regarding this, the MND announced that the 3-axis system, Kill Chain, Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) and Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR), would be force-integrated 2-3 years earlier than the previous schedule.

In particular, there was a strong request to secure a nuclear-powered submarine to overcome the North’s Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLMB) threats and asymmetric fighting power at a government-ruling party consultation, and the government decided to thoroughly review that. There was also a suggestion that countermeasures against the North’s new 300-mm self-propelled gun and cyber threats were necessary in an early stage.

In this regard, MND officials said, “There are several factors to consider to obtain a nuclear-powered submarine, such as military effectiveness, technical availability, balance of military power in north east region, etc. And now there are no limitations in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), but these cannot be used for military purposes according to the Korea-U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement, so we need interpretation on this.”

The MND is planning to add one more ballistic missile early warning radar to the budget for next year which reflects only one unit, making two in total. Along with this, ’Taurus’, a long-range air-to-ground missile, is also to be additionally obtained, and is to be force-integrated by next year. According to this, they decided to reflect a sufficient budget during the next year’s deliberation on the budget, and to secure additional funds for the force integration project like marine patrol as it is materialized.

The government and ruling party expect to require an extra 200-300 billion won in order to advance the schedule one year ahead regarding to the scale of budget increase, and plan to reflect it up to the full considering the entire finance scale during the deliberation process in the National Assembly.

An MND official said, “Our force will grasp the trend of North Korea’s core military facilities as we accelerate the development of Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile System (L-SAM) and review the lease the military spy satellite to fill up its blank which is to be deployed until 2023 or receive information directly.”

By Byeong-No, Yun < trylover@dema.mil.kr >
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