Security threats surrounding the Korean Peninsula continue in the new year of 2025. North Korea resumed missile provocations, firing a medium-range ballistic missile into the East Sea on the 6th, marking a return to missile tests after two months. Additionally, it launched several short-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles on the 14th and 25th. Amid the chaotic domestic and international situation, tensions in the international community are rising, increasing attention to our military's defense posture. This highlights the Korean Three-Axis System, a core concept of defense capabilities responding to the threats from North Korea.[Editor’s note]

The third axis of the Korean Three-Axis System is "Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation" (KMPR). While the other two axes, the Kill Chain, activate when a North Korean attack is imminent, and the Korean Air Missile Defense (KAMD) operates when missiles are incoming, the massive punishment and retaliation serves as a last resort activated after an invasion occurs. Our military does not possess nuclear weapons but maintains numerous high-powered weapons capable of inflicting large-scale retaliation.

A mobile launch vehicle equipped with the high-power rent(expense) missile Hyunmoo-5 is moving at the 76th Armed Forces Day commemorative ceremony held at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Oct. 1 of last year. / News1

The representative weapon for massive punishment and retaliation is the Hyunmoo, nicknamed the 'monster missile.' Developed with domestic technology, the Hyunmoo is a high-powered ballistic missile that encapsulates 50 years of missile development history.

The most recently developed Hyunmoo-5 was first unveiled during the Armed Forces Day event on Oct. 1 of last year. At that time, the Hyunmoo boasted a launch tube length of about 20 meters and a launch vehicle with 18 wheels, showcasing its massive size. The warhead weight of the Hyunmoo-5 reaches up to 8 tons (t), making it the heaviest among existing conventional short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Reducing the warhead weight to 1 ton allows an increase in range to over 5,000 kilometers.

The Hyunmoo-5 has the capability to destroy bunkers hidden 100 meters underground where North Korean command is located. It is reported that our military has plans to devastate Pyongyang with more than 20 Hyunmoo-5 missiles in the event of a North Korean invasion.

The live-fire training of the K239 ‘Cheonmu’ multiple-launch rocket system. / Capture from the Ministry of Defense’s YouTube.

Another weapon responsible for massive punishment and retaliation is the K239 "Cheonmu" multiple launch rocket system. A multiple launch rocket system is a weapon capable of bombarding extensive areas with multiple missiles. The name Cheonmu was established through a public competition in 2011 and means 'to cover the sky with rockets.'

The Cheonmu can operate in various configurations with domestically produced 239mm guided missiles, 130mm Guryong rockets, 230mm unguided rockets, and 600mm tactical missiles. When equipped with high-explosive guided missiles featuring a Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS), it achieves precision strikes with a target impact error of only 15 meters. Additionally, using cluster munitions allows the 300 submunitions inside to scatter widely enough to devastate an area three times the size of a soccer field instantaneously.

The Cheonmu was developed under the leadership of a private company, Hanwha Aerospace, and was introduced to the army after passing military testing in 2014. It has been recognized for its performance and exported to several countries, including Poland, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Navy's Dosan Ahn Chang-ho-class submarine, a 3,000-ton (t) submarine built with domestic technology for the first time. / Capture from the Ministry of National Defense’s YouTube.

At sea, the 3,000-ton class Jangbogo-III submarines (the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, Ahn Moo, and Shin Chae-ho) join in massive punishment and retaliation efforts. They monitor enemy movements at sea during peacetime as part of the Kill Chain but can directly launch missiles to destroy enemy facilities in wartime.

In 2021, South Korea successfully conducted a test launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), becoming the seventh country in the world to possess SLBM technology. The Dosan Ahn Chang-ho class submarines are equipped with vertical launch systems for ballistic missiles and can carry up to six SLBMs. The navy is also in the process of acquiring three latest model submarines by 2029 as part of the Jangbogo-III Batch-II project.

An Air Force F-15K fighter is conducting a training exercise to drop the GBU-28 ‘bunker buster’ bomb. / Capture from the Ministry of Defense's YouTube.

The air force is primarily equipped with F-15K fighter jets, which carry various armaments integrated into F-15K airframes, playing a central role in massive punishment and retaliation. In wartime, the GBU-28 air-to-ground guided bomb, nicknamed the 'bunker buster,' will be used to strike key North Korean facilities.

The GBU-28 measures approximately 6 meters in length, has a diameter of 36.8 cm, and weighs 5,000 pounds (about 2,200 kg). This weight allows the bomb, launched from a high altitude, to gain sufficient kinetic energy during descent to enhance its penetrating power. The GBU-28's warhead is designed to penetrate and explode at a depth of 30 meters underground (6 meters in reinforced concrete). The GBU-28 is also a bomb specially designed by the United States to attack the Iraqi military command orchestrating the war from underground bunkers during the Gulf War in 1991.