Defense official urges push for integrated military academy ahead of OPCON transfer

Kim Hong-cheol, deputy defense minister for policy, speaks during a policy forum at the National Assembly in Seoul, where he introduced the outline of the ministry's integration plan to merge the military academies of the Army, Navy and Air Force, Wednesday. Yonhap

A senior defense ministry official said Wednesday that now is the right time to push ahead with a plan to establish an integrated military academy for the Army, Navy and Air Force to better prepare future officers for the post-wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer era.

"Now is the critical time to build an education system that prepares future cadets for future warfare, whether it takes some 10 years or longer to complete the new military academy," Kim Hong-cheol, deputy defense minister for policy, said at a policy briefing at National Assembly.

"What's more important is whether the current military academy is sufficiently equipped with a system to educate future generations in the event that the OPCON transfer takes place within one to two years ... or within two to three years," Kim said, before adding, "I think it is insufficient."

The defense ministry announced the plan last week to establish an integrated military academy at Jaundae, a compound of military training and education facilities in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul.

The new campus is expected to be completed around 2036.

The defense chiefs of Korea and the United States are expected to discuss proposing a timeline for the OPCON transfer at the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) set to take place in Washington in October.

Seoul has sought to move up the timeline for the planned transfer, aiming to complete the transition within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term ending in 2030, while the U.S. side has highlighted fully meeting the conditions over the timeline.

Meanwhile, the ministry plans to announce a detailed blueprint of the integration plan in October. It will also seek to enact legislation on the establishment of the unified military academy by December.

The defense ministry has been pushing to establish a tentatively named "National Military Academy" by combining the academies of the three military branches in an effort to pool talented future cadets amid demographic decline.

Under the scheme, the government is considering providing a four-year education program at the new military academy while offering cadets courses focused on training specific to their respective branches in their final years.

The move, however, has been met with fierce backlash from alumni associations of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the opposition parties, who opposed the move citing concerns over diminishing the expertise and competitiveness of each military branch.