Südkorea — New military unit for international peace missions

A spe­cial Kore­an troop con­tin­gent was cre­at­ed on July 1 that will assume Seoul’s peace­keep­ing oper­a­tions over­seas when the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty requests help.

Army Spe­cial Task Force Head­quar­ters in Incheon
Source: MND, Repub­lic of Korea

Sol­diers under the new­ly-estab­lished Inter­na­tion­al Peace Sup­port Force salute to begin its over­seas peace­keep­ing mis­sions dur­ing an inau­gur­al cer­e­mo­ny at the Army Spe­cial Task Force Head­quar­ters in Incheon. The unit, com­posed of 1,000 troop­ers, will be able to be dis­patched with­in one month after a request is received an approved. 

The 1,000-strong band, named the Inter­na­tion­al Peace Sup­port Force, was inau­gu­rat­ed with a cer­e­mo­ny at the Army Spe­cial Task Force Head­quar­ters in Incheon, the Defense Min­istry said. 

Kore­an Army Chief of Staff Hwang Eui-don attend­ed, along with 350 gov­ern­ment dig­ni­taries and mil­i­tary personnel. 

Pre­vi­ous­ly, Kore­an sol­diers sent over­seas for peace­keep­ing oper­a­tions were select­ed from exist­ing forces. Hav­ing a unit ded­i­cat­ed to over­seas oper­a­tions will make Korea’s peace­keep­ing activ­i­ties more effec­tive, the min­istry said. The min­istry will also cre­ate a 2,000-strong back­up unit for the force. 

At the inau­gur­al cer­e­mo­ny, Hwang said the cre­ation of a per­ma­nent force for over­seas dis­patch will improve Korea’s image internationally. 

“We will get ful­ly ready for requests for the dis­patch of over­seas troops any­time through prac­ti­cal train­ing pro­grams,” said Hwang. 

Nick­named Onnuri, a Kore­an word mean­ing “the entire world,” the Inter­na­tion­al Peace Sup­port Force will be able to be dis­patched with­in one month after a request is received and approved, the min­istry said. 

While home, the troops will learn basic strate­gies for per­form­ing in over­seas assign­ments. When they get an assign­ment over­seas, they will get an addi­tion­al train­ing in the lan­guage and cul­ture of their destination. 

The min­istry said the Kore­an troops already deployed over­seas on peace­keep­ing mis­sions will be grad­u­al­ly replaced by the Onnuri team. 

Source:
Min­istry of Nation­al Defense[MND], Repub­lic of Korea 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →