The Ministry of National Defense said on Feb. 4 that it held a "defense reform seminar" with the National Security Research Institute of the Korea National Defense University at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, Seoul.
The seminar, held under the theme "smart strong military, the direction of new defense reform," was organized to discuss defense reform measures the military should pursue amid structural challenges such as a rapidly changing security environment and the nature of war, and a decline in conscription resources.
Minister Ahn Gyu-baek of the Ministry of National Defense, in congratulatory remarks, called for pushing defense reform. Ahn said, "Our response to the challenges before us—heightened North Korean nuclear threats, the transition of wartime operational control, the challenge of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and a demographic cliff—will determine the fate of the Republic of Korea."
Ahn added, "Based on the 2040 force structure reform, we must achieve a transition to an AI-based, manpower-reducing advanced strong military," and emphasized, "With wartime operational control transferred during the term, our military will organically integrate the manpower structure, command structure, and force structure to lead the fate of the Korean Peninsula."
In the presentations and discussions, participants reviewed the achievements and limits of past defense reforms and discussed the new direction of defense reform and the direction of force structure reorganization.
An Jae-bong, former head of the Yonsei University Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology, stressed that force structure reforms to strengthen jointness should be carried out based on a "quasi four-service system" of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, and that an integrated redesign of manpower, units, and forces is needed to prepare for the demographic cliff.
An official at the Ministry of National Defense said, "We plan to reflect the opinions raised at the seminar and flesh out the basic plan for defense reform, which we are pursuing with the goal of establishing this year."