Ministry of National Defense to Promote Legislation Allowing Soldiers to Use Mobile Phones During Duty Hours

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Measures are being promoted to allow soldiers to use mobile phones even during working hours.

The Ministry of National Defense announced on the 21st that at the 2nd regular meeting of the Civil-Military Joint Committee held in the afternoon, the agenda item 'Review of Relaxation of Mobile Phone Usage Restrictions for Soldiers' was proposed as a task to be promoted, and plans to establish a pilot project to enable soldiers to use mobile phones during working hours.

To this end, in the second half of this year, pilot units will be operated for two months in 1 to 3 locations per military branch, including army division-level, navy fleet-level, and air force wing-level units, to devise a mobile phone usage policy that minimizes the impact on mission performance and security.

However, prior to this, detailed rules for mobile phone usage and sanctions for violations will be specified, and changes in awareness among officers and soldiers before and after the pilot application will be identified through surveys.

Currently, the military only allows soldiers to use mobile phones after work on weekdays and on weekends.

However, instead of uniformly regulating mobile phone usage time, the Ministry of National Defense explained that there have been many suggestions that it is preferable to allow usage in principle but restrict it according to the type of mission such as operations and training.

Additionally, the Joint Committee decided to promote the establishment of a 'Dedicated Organization for Sexual Violence Prevention and Response' within the Ministry of National Defense, modeled after the U.S. Department of Defense's 'Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office' (SAPRO).

The Ministry of National Defense will monitor important sexual violence cases handled by each military branch on an ongoing basis, take prompt action when necessary, and establish a system where victims can report directly to the Ministry of National Defense if they wish.

Furthermore, the introduction of a civilian-origin military human rights protection officer system, the establishment of a 'meal planning first, then food procurement system,' improvement of military cooking personnel structure and expansion of cooking equipment distribution, replacement of bedding preferred by soldiers, and improvement of legal assistance systems for victims will also be promoted.

Seo Wook, Minister of National Defense and co-chairman, said, “We will concentrate all capabilities at the Ministry of National Defense level to ensure that the agenda items approved at this meeting are promoted with a sense of urgency.”

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