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| Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, sixth from left in front row, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Lee Bo-hyung, seventh from left in front row, commander of the drone operations command, pose during an inauguration ceremony held in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Joint Chiefs of Staffs |
By Lee Hyo-jin
The South Korean military established a new drone operations command, Friday, to bolster its defense capabilities against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the wake of North Korea's drone infiltration last year.
An inauguration ceremony for the new command was held in Pocheon, northeastern Gyeonggi Province, where the unit is based, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The event was attended by key military and political figures, including JCS Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, lawmakers and local government officials.
"The drone operations command is a unit based directly under the Ministry of National Defense, and will be under the supervision of the JCS chairman. It is the first joint combat unit to be composed of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps," the JCS said in a statement.
In a congratulatory letter, President Yoon Suk Yeol said the command "must be equipped with the capability and posture to deter North Korea's drone provocations and various asymmetric threats."
Gen. Lee Bo-hyung of the Army Aviation Command, who has been appointed as the commander of the drone unit, said, "Should the enemy launch another provocation against our country, we will show a prompt and overwhelming response to make it clear that their actions will lead to a devastating result."
Lee was referring to an intrusion across the inter-Korean border by five North Korean drones on Dec. 26, 2022. One of them briefly entered a no-fly zone near the presidential office in Seoul.
The South Korean military failed to intercept the drones, laying bare its insufficient readiness to detect, track and shoot down the drones.
Against this backdrop, Yoon ordered the establishment of a drone operations command in January this year.
However, the decision to station the new command in Pocheon was met by fierce backlash from residents of the region.
Hours before the establishment ceremony, Yeon Je-chang, a member of the city council, announced a statement criticizing the military for its "unilateral decision to build the drone command in the area without sounding out the opinions of the residents."
"Establishing the drone operations command in Pocheon is just another unilateral move by the military, which disregards the opposition of many residents. We can no longer ignore such an approach that ignores the sacrifices made by our residents over the past 70 years under the pretext of national security," he said.
The northeastern city of Pocheon, located just 25 kilometers south of the inter-Korean border, has been home to several military bases and live-fire training facilities, triggering outcries from residents who have complained about noise, unexploded ordinance and other dangers.
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