Urgent Defense Reform

Nation Should Turn Misfortune Into Rebirth of Military

Whatever the cause of the Navy ship Cheonan sinking turns out to be, the military's top brass cannot escape responsibility. Whether the tragic accident was due to an attack by North Korea, as is increasingly suspected by security hawks, or to mistakes by the Navy, the loss of 44 sailors and a battleship during peacetime can never be forgiven.

As most Koreans know but not always feel, however, the two Koreas are technically at war, as they have yet to turn the 57-year-old truce into a peace treaty. And the demilitarized zone is probably the most fortified area in the world with 2 million, heavily-armed troops facing each other. But these simply are reasons the South Korean military should remain better trained than other countries and be doubly combat-ready, which unfortunately proved not to be the case as shown by the naval incident.

No less disappointing than the sinking of the ship was the way military leaders dealt with it, especially in the early stages. People were aghast at the news that it took no less than 49 minutes for the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman to receive a report about the incident, and 52 minutes for the defense minister. The reason was even more shocking: Pressed on the delay, a JCS officer said he forgot to do so ``for a moment.''

It was also apparent that the military had no firmly established manual on how to cope with an emergency like this. In the worst example, the military didn't know what it should make public and what not, exposing sensitive information and, at the same time, losing the public's trust.

Though the largest incident in scale and by far the most tragic, the battleship Cheonan is not the only recent mishap. The past few months saw the crashes of two F-5 jet-fighters, an Army helicopter and even while salvaging of the 1,200-ton ship was ongoing, two Navy helicopters while on routine missions. Add to these the frequent ``firearm accidents,'' including suicides and shooting rampages, at barracks, and it's easy to understand why military experts call for an overhaul of the Republic of Korea military.

There are rumors about less than thorough maintenance of old, overworked equipment in pursuit of only new, state-of-the-art weapons. The post-mortem of accidents are said to be quite superficial: If the pilot is dead, it's human error, and when the pilot is alive, then it's a mechanical problem. We hope it will not be the case but some experts also are noting on fact the latest series of accidents coincide with the across-the-board shuffle of military personnel.

When it comes to military reform, the nation will need to start with the conscription system, in which those with powerful and wealthy parents can slip through loopholes at the military manpower administration under all kinds of excuses, and the government exempts all who made contributions to national prestige, such as medal-winning athletes, from obligatory military service, leaving only the most common classes with no particular backgrounds to endure what many call ``two lost years'' of their lives.

Inter-Korean hard-liners attribute the loose discipline and low morale to the ``sunshine policy'' of the previous liberal governments, but diplomatic engagement and military preparedness should be two entirely different things. Actually, the Navy won ― not lost at the least ― both skirmishes in the West Sea under the two previous administrations.

The other possible reason could be the Korean Army's habitual recalcitrance ― or fear ― to stand on its own amid almost subconscious dependency on its largest ally, the United States, as shown by the tenacious attempts to nullify the scheduled takeover of wartime command in 2012.

President Lee Myung-bak must turn this misfortune into an opportunity to completely retool the military to a stronger, more responsible and independent force, starting with shakeups at the top.