Over 25,000 Personnel Deployed for County Flood Recovery Support

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The military is conducting mine detection operations in six border area cities and counties where mines have been lost. Additionally, over 25,000 personnel and more than 1,600 pieces of equipment have been deployed for civilian support at flood recovery sites over 17 days until the 11th of this month.

On the 12th, the Ministry of National Defense stated, "We are providing support by maximizing the use of available personnel and equipment within the scope that does not interfere with current operational readiness."

The Ministry explained that they have moved away from past civilian support focused mainly on personnel and engineering equipment to provide complex support including water supply vehicles, mobile laundry and drying equipment, ambulances, and quarantine equipment. On the 6th of this month, the military deployed nine drones from the Dronebot Combat Unit to search for missing persons from a capsized vessel at Uiam Dam in Chuncheon.

On the 5th of this month, due to heavy rain damaging the only bridge in a village and making vehicle passage difficult, the engineering corps was deployed to Cheondo-ri, Seohwa-myeon, Inje-gun, Gangwon-do to install a military operational bridge.

Furthermore, in six border area cities and counties (Paju, Yeoncheon, Hwacheon, Inje, Yanggu, Cheorwon), mine detection operations are underway to prevent damage from wooden box mines and explosives that could infiltrate from the North.

The Ministry of National Defense is also operating military cooperation officers in 53 local governments, including Gangwon Provincial Office, to proactively identify military support needs before requests from local governments and to deploy support personnel and equipment to flood recovery sites in the shortest possible time.

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said, "As the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus infection) situation continues, soldiers providing civilian support must wear masks and thoroughly disinfect and quarantine after returning to their units."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.