[Comprehensive] Navy Chief of Staff Appointment Postponed... Announcement of Lieutenant General Promotions

Park Jung-hwan (44th class of Korea Military Academy), Deputy Chief of Joint Chiefs of Staff

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The replacement of the Chief of Naval Operations has been postponed. The appointment of the Chief of Naval Operations will be carried out concurrently with the second half general officer personnel changes.

On the 9th, the government announced the second half 2021 general officer personnel changes but explained that the Chief of Naval Operations appointment will be made together with the second half general officer personnel changes. It is unusual to formalize the replacement of the Chief without announcing the successor. Many question the replacement of the Chief who has not committed any major mistakes, especially in a situation where the budget for the Navy’s long-cherished project, the light aircraft carrier, has been dramatically ‘revived.’ The current Chief, Bu Seok-jong, whose term expires in April next year, will step down after 1 year and 8 months in office.

In this personnel change, the government appointed Park Jeong-hwan (Korea Military Academy Class 44), Chief of Operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Following this, Ahn Byeong-seok (KMA Class 45), Commander of the 1st Corps, and Shin Ok-cheol (Air Force Academy Class 36), Acting Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force, were appointed as Deputy Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force, respectively.

Among those promoted to Lieutenant General in the Army are six officers including Kang Shin-cheol, Secretary for Defense Reform, Shin Hee-hyun, Yeo Woon-tae, Lee Gyu-jun, Lee Doo-hee, and Jang Gwang-seon. Except for Secretary Kang, the other five were assigned as Corps Commanders.

In the Navy, two officers, Major Generals Lee Seong-ryeol and Jeong Seung-gyun, were promoted to Lieutenant General and will serve as Superintendent of the Naval Academy and Commander of the Education Command, respectively. In the Air Force, Major Generals Park Woong and Park Ha-sik, promoted to Lieutenant General, are expected to be appointed as Commander of the Education Command and Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, respectively.

Additionally, 25 officers were promoted to Major General: 16 from the Army, 4 from the Navy, and 5 from the Air Force. A total of 75 officers were promoted to Brigadier General across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Notably, three female officers?Jung Jeong-sook (Infantry), Kang Young-mi (Engineering), and Kang Jeom-sook (Nursing)?were selected to expand female personnel participation. Among them, Brigadier General Jung Jeong-sook became the first female infantry Major General. Colonel Kang Young-mi was appointed as the first female general in the engineering branch.

The government stated, "In accordance with the principle of implementing balanced personnel appointments based on ability without concentration in specific fields, a large number of outstanding non-military academy graduates were continuously selected."

Based on the Korea Military Academy, among 52 officers promoted from Colonel to Brigadier General, 18 (approximately 34.6%) are non-KMA graduates.

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