South Korean military announces response to North Korea’s two-track approach

Posted on : 2016-05-10 16:15 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
After North Korea’s party congress, South Korea moving ahead with “kill chain” and Korean Air and Missile Defense
Kill chain missile strike system
Kill chain missile strike system

After North Korea confirmed at the 7th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) that it would be sticking to its two-track policy of building the economy and developing nuclear weapons, the South Korean military announced that it would accelerate efforts to prepare military countermeasures including the “kill chain” and the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD).

“Considering that we need to place the highest priority on preparing a response to the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles, we are planning to acquire these abilities by securing funding for the kill chain and the Korean Air and Missile Defense before anything else,” a South Korean military officer said on May 9.

The kill chain is a weapons system designed to detect signs of an imminent North Korean missile launch and to take out the missile before it could be launched, while the KAMD is designed to detect a North Korean missile launch and intercept the missile in midair.

First of all, the South Korean military is planning to enhance the methods of surveillance and detection that are needed to build these weapons systems.

As ways of collecting visual data, the South Korean military is currently operating the Geumgang (RC-800) and Saemae (RF-16) reconnaissance aircraft, they have limitation in the surveillance they can conduct in the area north of Pyongyang and Wonsan in North Korea.

By 2018, the South Korean military will be deploying the Global Hawk, a high-altitude reconnaissance UAV, which will be capable of conducting surveillance on all parts of North Korean territory. The military is also planning to upgrade the performance of the Baekdu (RC-800B), a spy aircraft designed to collect signal intelligence, to enable it to collect better signal intelligence before a North Korean missile launch.

The South Korean military will be deploying a military spy satellite in the first half of the 2020s, and it is planning to bring two more early warning radars online during the same time frame. The military is already operating two Green Pine radars with a maximum detection range of 750km that it bought from Israel, but there is talk of the need for more radars as a countermeasure against the submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) that are being developed by North Korea.

South Korea is also strengthening its methods of attack. In the second half of this year, it will be deploying the long-range air-to-ground guided missile Taurus, which it is purchasing from Germany. With a range of 500km, the Taurus will be loaded on the South Korean air force’s F-15K jet fighters as a means of launching precision strikes on North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities.

In addition, the South Korean military is planning to develop and deploy ballistic missiles with a range of 800km. It also intends to develop carbon fiber bombs that could be used to destroy North Korea’s substations and electric grid to cut off the supply of power.

In order to intercept North Korean missiles, South Korea is looking to improve the performance of the Patriot (PAC-2) missiles by replacing the fragmentation-style guided missiles with ones that strike targets directly.

South Korea is planning to deploy mid-range surface-to-air missiles (M-SAM) by the first half of the 2020s and to deploy long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAM) by the middle of the 2020s.

In related news, South Korean and American defense officials met in Washington on May 9 for the Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD). At the meeting, these officials reportedly discussed ways to elaborate on the “4D Operational Concept” intended to detect and destroy North Korean missiles.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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