Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Business agreement to build up the safety net for a smart city
Videos to share limited to national security and disaster
Available for utilization as quick circumstantial judgment data
Expected to improve command and control, and operation capability

Our military is going to drive up its operation capabilities by using a dense network of 'eyes' over our society.

On August 21, the Minister of National Defense announced: "We have entered into a business agreement with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport and the cities of Seoul and Yongin to build up the safety net for a smart city so that the military can watch CCTVs of local governments in real time in the event of a situation directly connected to national security, such as an integrated defense situation, integrated defense drill or a national disaster. We are expecting to improve our operation capabilities significantly, as well as the command and control capabilities of our commanders."

This agreement has been arranged to support a fast response to situations and ensure the safety of our local communities, by sharing CCTV images of the Integrated Management Center of the Smart City between the military unit and local governments in real time and using them.

Today, local governments including Seoul and Yongin are operating the Integrated Management Center of the Smart City. This is a system that connects and operates several information systems like CCTVs to provide safety net services for crime prevention and preparation for fire and disasters, as well as services related to traffic, facility management, etc.

As CCTV images contain helpful data that allow situations to be quickly assessed, the military should secure them rapidly when situations occur. But in the past, members of the military have had to visit the relevant center of the local government to check CCTV images, resulting in a delayed initial response.

With this agreement, the military no longer needs to make a separate visit, and can watch the situations at the Situation Room in real time, resolving this problem. MND is expecting to provide real-time field information to the operation forces before they arrive at the scene and improve the military's operation capabilities significantly with increasing operation effectiveness.

It should be noted that under this agreement, the CCTV images the military can check at their Situation Room are limited to ones that are related to national security and disasters within the law, and this function will not be used during times of peace. This includes declaration of integrated defense situation, issuance of alert level 2 or higher, integrated defense drill, governmental training, Korea-U.S. combined exercise, incidence of terrorism, disasters and accidents, emergency situation, etc.

As its first step in building the system, each organization starts a pilot project on August 24. First, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport develops and builds connection technology between the Integrated Management Center of the Smart City and the military's Situation Room.

The MND provides the technology support necessary for system connection and the communication environment necessary for data sending and receiving, and to build the connection system with the MND. Also, the cities of Seoul and Yongin are planning to support the enhancement of the network between the Integrated Management Center of Smart City and the military's Situation Room. The MND will proceed with the pilot project until the end of this year and further expand the services to the entire military starting next year.

Kwon Hyuk-jin, director general for Informatization Planning at the MND said, "In a national disaster such as a forest fire or flood, the role our military plays is getting bigger. We are expecting our military to make a great contribution to national security as well as the safety of our local communities by utilizing the integrated platform of the Smart City. We'll work together in more fields by applying new fourth industrial revolution technologies to the smart city."

Written by Lim Chae-mu lims86@dema.mil.kr

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