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| Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, left, inspects readiness at a hangar of the Air Force's Eighth Fighter Wing in Wonju, Gangwon Province, Aug. 7, in this photo released by his office. Yonhap |
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum visited front-line Air Force, Navy and Marine units Monday to check readiness amid concerns about the possibility of North Korean provocations ahead of a major summertime South Korea-U.S. military exercise.
Kim inspected the Air Force's Eighth Fighter Wing in Wonju, 87 kilometers east of Seoul, a forward-deployed naval unit and a Marine Corps unit on the northwestern border island of Yeonpyeong.
His visit came as Seoul and Washington are preparing to hold the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise set to kick off later this month. Pyongyang has denounced the exercise as a war rehearsal against it.
At the Air Force unit, Kim said the North may ratchet up the threat and intensity of provocations on the pretext of responding to the UFS exercise, while calling for a readiness posture to enable an "immediate response" in the event of a provocation.
"A requirement for an operational success in case of an enemy drone provocation is the immediate operation of response forces capable of identifying and downing enemy drones in a timely manner," Kim was quoted as saying.
Kim then visited the Marine unit in charge of defending front-line islands and the Navy unit tasked with safeguarding waters south of the Northern Limit Line, a de facto inter-Korean sea border.
At the Marine base, Kim called for dealing a "bold" blow to an enemy in the event of a provocation to make it deeply "regret" the provocation.
While at the Navy base, the general pointed out that should an enemy engage in a provocation, the South Korean military should "shatter the enemy's will" for provocations through the operation of "overwhelming joint forces." (Yonhap)
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