By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter
Maj. Gen. Bae Deuk-sik was promoted to become the three-star general to head the Defense Security Command (DSC) in a general-level reshuffle Wednesday that affected 27 Army and Navy posts, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Bae, 46, has served as acting DSC commander since April after working as chief of the arms acquisition management bureau at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
Maj. Gen. Yoo Nak-joon, 43, chief of the 1st ROK Marine Division, was appointed as commandant of the ROK Marine Corps with a promotion to lieutenant general.
Rear Adm. Hwang Ki-chul, 43, who served as head of the DAPA’s naval weapons acquisition bureau, was promoted to vice admiral and became the new commander of the Naval Operations Command.
The reshuffle followed the June 14 shakeup of four-star military generals in the wake of the sinking of the warship Cheonan in the West Sea in March. The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) recommended that 25 military generals, officers and civilian officials be disciplined for mishandling the naval disaster.
A Seoul-led team of investigators, including experts from the United States, Britain, Australia and Sweden, concluded last month that the 1,200-ton Cheonan was torpedoed by a North Korean midget submarine. Of the 104 crew members on board, 46 died and the remaining 58 were rescued.
“In conducting the latest reshuffle, the defense ministry took the BAI recommendation into consideration to a certain degree, so those believed to be responsible for mishandling the disaster were excluded from the promotion,” a ministry official said.
In the reshuffle, Lt. Gen. Cho Jung-hwan, 45, commander of the 5th ROK Army Corps, was named the vice Army chief of staff.
Vice Adm. Choi Yoon-hee, 46, superintendent of the Naval Academy, was tapped to become the vice Navy chief of staff.