Resolving Marine Debris and War Casualty Remains Excavation Through Interagency Collaboration

On the 4th, the Multi-Ministerial Cooperation Special Committee Confirmed the Target Projects

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The government is addressing various issues spanning marine debris disposal, war casualty remains excavation, and offshore wind power through collaboration among relevant ministries.

On the 4th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the 11th Multi-Ministry Cooperation Special Committee (Multi-Ministry Special Committee) and selected ‘multi-ministry joint projects,’ where two or more ministries collaborate on research and development, and ‘civil-military ministry-linked cooperation projects’ (ministry-linked cooperation projects), where defense ministries such as the Ministry of National Defense and Defense Acquisition Program Administration collaborate with civilian ministries such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Science and ICT. The Multi-Ministry Special Committee is a committee established under the National Science and Technology Advisory Council to plan and select joint projects among multiple ministries and to promote multi-ministry cooperation such as civil-military technology cooperation and convergence research and development.

The government will first promote the development and demonstration project of eco-friendly (LNG·hydrogen) vessels for collecting and processing marine floating debris in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and local governments such as Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam to support the ‘2050 Carbon Neutral Declaration.’ Additionally, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will jointly promote the ‘Development of coexistence technologies for offshore wind power, fisheries, and environment’ project. This project aims to resolve conflicts among stakeholders arising from the large-scale offshore wind power development in Korea and the overlapping marine spatial issues with fisheries and the environment. It plans to establish and distribute Korean-style offshore wind power-fisheries coexistence regional technology packages to promote coexistence-compatible offshore wind power and offshore wind power-friendly fisheries and environment.

Along with this, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and Ulsan City will jointly promote the ‘Next-generation hydrogen propulsion vessel safety-environment integrated platform technology development’ project. The core framework is the development and demonstration research of hydrogen propulsion vessels based on Safety Integrity Level (SIL). The goal is to systematize safety standards for core element technologies related to hydrogen propulsion vessels and contribute to securing a safety competitive advantage for domestically built hydrogen propulsion vessels in the global market.

As for ‘ministry-linked cooperation projects,’ three projects were selected: development of ‘multi-robot cooperative autonomous planning technology,’ ‘core technology development for war casualty remains excavation and underground detection,’ and ‘analysis of civil-military frequency utilization requirements and development of adaptive interference mitigation technology.’ The multi-robot technology development project aims to develop multi-robot cooperative intelligent control technology that integrates and operates numerous ground robots and drones with various functions to swiftly, accurately, and flexibly handle diverse defense and civilian missions. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will jointly promote this project. Through this project, soldiers and multiple robots will cooperate to efficiently perform various defense missions such as reconnaissance, transport, relay, and combat, and when applied to the civilian sector, it will enable large-scale apartment complex logistics delivery and patrols.

The ‘core technology development for war casualty remains excavation and underground detection’ project involves the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy jointly participating to efficiently improve the currently manual excavation work of war casualty remains. The goal is to develop technologies such as underground skeletal detection sensors and image processing-based remains recognition.

The ‘analysis of civil-military frequency utilization requirements and development of adaptive interference mitigation technology’ project is a core foundational technology for frequency sharing. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of National Defense will jointly derive optimal military frequency requirements in a civil-military frequency sharing environment and effectively eliminate radio interference by integrating multidimensional technologies.

Kim Sung-soo, Director of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “2021 will be a year when ministries cooperate not only to restore the lives of the people from the difficulties of COVID-19 but also to prepare for the future with science and technology and achieve a leap forward together.” He added, “At the Innovation Headquarters level, we will actively support achieving crisis recovery, social inclusion, and innovative leaps through inter-ministerial collaboration in science and technology.”

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