The Yoon Seok-yeol government reshuffled military leaders on the afternoon of the 29th. It has been one year and five months since President Yoon Seok-yeol made a general reshuffle to replace the entire military leadership. There are evaluations that this appointment has made the leadership of the Army, Navy, and Air Force more ‘younger’.
On the 29th, the government announced military leadership personnel changes, replacing all seven four-star generals, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Deputy Commander of the ROK-US Combined Forces Command, and the Commander of the Army Ground Operations Command and the 2nd Operations Command.
Kim Myeong-soo, Commander of Naval Operations Command (43rd Marine Corps), was appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The selection of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Navy comes 10 years after Chairman Choi Yoon-hee (term in office from 2013 to 2015) in 2013, and is the second in history. He is the fifth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from a non-Army background.
Some in the military say this is an unconventional appointment. This is the first time that a lieutenant general (three-star general) has been promoted to general and appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 1994, when the peacetime operational control held by the Commander of the ROK-US토스카지노 도메인 Combined Forces Command, a four-star US general, was transferred to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Kim-nominee will be appointed by President Yoon after passing the National Assembly’s personnel hearing through a resolution at the Cabinet meeting on the morning of October 30.
Park An-soo (46th Army Corps), combined arms commander on Armed Forces Day, was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Army, Yang Yong-mo (44th Marine Corps), head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Military Support Center, was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Navy, and Lee Young-soo (38th Civil Service), head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Strategic Planning Division, was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Kang Shin-cheol, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Operations Director (46th Army Corps), was appointed as the Deputy Commander of the Combined Forces Command, Special Operations Command Commander Son Sik (47th Army Corps) was appointed as the Ground Operations Command Commander, and Capital Corps Commander Ko Chang-jun (3rd Company, 26th Division) was appointed as the Army’s 2nd Operations Command Commander.
With this personnel appointment, the military academy’s level has been lowered by two to three levels. Appointee Kim is a classmate of the 45th class of the Korean Military Academy and is three years junior to the current chairman, Seung-gyeom Kim (42 of the Korean Military Academy). The new Army, Navy, and Air Force chiefs of staff are all two years junior to their predecessors.