ROK Armed Forces focus on enhanced training, benefits for personnel
Felix Kim
South Korea is prioritizing enhanced training and benefits for military personnel as the nation addresses demographic challenges such as a shrinking pool of conscripts and external threats from a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korean regime.
Recent surveys of junior and noncommissioned officers (NCO) identified leadership training, streamlined administration, flexible vacations and military family benefits as areas of focus. Measures already have been implemented to meet those needs, the South Korean Defense Ministry reported, including a planned leadership development center, new policies and cash incentives for recruits.
The “grassroots assessment” of challenges facing the military’s junior leadership is a first step in developing solutions, retired Republic of Korea (ROK) Army Lt. Gen. In-Bum Chun told FORUM.
The survey findings, issued by the Defense Ministry in January 2024, include recommendations to simplify administrative tools, increase and improve work manuals, and enhance leadership and management training.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol included a raft of related improvements in the government’s 2024 budget, the Defense Ministry noted, including cash incentives to help officer recruits pay for their studies before their commissions and to attract prospective NCOs with experience as conscript Soldiers. The budget also includes increases in housing allowances and NCO salaries.
The Defense Ministry, meanwhile, has announced plans to expand leadership education so junior officers and NCOs can better understand the characteristics of the new generation of conscripts and build abilities to maintain “confident command conditions.” It established “a customized leadership education system” in jurisdictions nationwide and aims to open a Leader Development Center by 2026, along with issuing new training materials.
“The focus now is on educating the Soldiers on why we fight and respond to North Korean provocations,” Chun said.
Attracting and retaining recruits is becoming increasingly important as the nation’s demographics change, with births falling by nearly 13% from 2022 to 2023. The ROK Armed Forces has about 500,000 active-duty personnel, and men ages 18 to 35 must serve about 18 months in the military.
The Defense Ministry has raised the age limit for entering the military from 27 to 29 and is encouraging more women to enlist.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik in November 2023 pledged to boost support for military families with multiple children and to establish a family-friendly culture in the Armed Forces. “We will create working conditions where our comrades can work happily based on happy families,” Shin said.
The Defense Ministry also expanded access to civilian counselors. As of May 2023, junior officers and NCOs can receive counseling without first undergoing a psychological evaluation, as was required previously.
Entry-level officers will have greater freedom to schedule vacations, particularly foreign trips, to support a work-life balance, the ministry stated. Leave applications can now be submitted with less advance time and can be approved by officials lower on the chain of command.
Felix Kim is a FORUM correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea.
