JCS to Begin Full Relocation Next Month... First Contingency Fund Initially Excluded

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The government has excluded the relocation costs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the contingency funds allocated for moving President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol's office to Yongsan.

According to government officials on the 5th, the proposed contingency fund amounts to 36,045,595,000 KRW. The contingency funds are planned to be spent by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety with 17,624,178,000 KRW, the Presidential Security Service with 6,586,185,000 KRW, and the Ministry of National Defense with 11,835,232,000 KRW.

The exclusion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff relocation costs from the contingency funds is also related to the upcoming ROK-US combined military exercises scheduled for this month. For practical convenience, instead of providing a lump sum for relocation costs, it is known that the Blue House and the transition team agreed that the departments involved in the ROK-US combined military exercises this month will move after the exercises are completed. This means that the remaining costs after the ROK-US combined exercises will be organized and supported as a second contingency fund. The second contingency fund is expected to cover an additional relocation cost of 13.6 billion KRW and maintenance costs of 3 billion KRW for the Tongui-dong office (based on two months).

Accordingly, systems operated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, such as the Tactical Command and Control Automation System (C4I), are expected to seek phased relocation later. The system operated within the Joint Chiefs bunker has been pointed out as difficult to relocate in a short period.

If additional contingency funds are provided, the Joint Chiefs of Staff will relocate to Namtaeryeong, where the Capital Defense Command is located. Namtaeryeong houses a bunker where the president and key ministry officials command war in emergencies. When the DEFCON (defense readiness condition) level rises in preparation for war, the Capital Defense Command’s B1 bunker becomes the war command center.

The Namtaeryeong Capital Defense Command B1 bunker is also capable of defending against electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks using nuclear weapons. EMP refers to weapons that can minimize human casualties while disabling the electrical and electronic devices of enemy weapons.

Inside and outside the military, concerns have been raised that if the Joint Chiefs relocate this month, it may be difficult to respond to provocations from North Korea. April includes Kim Il-sung’s birthday (the 15th), known as the Day of the Sun, and the first half of the year’s ROK-US combined exercises are scheduled, so North Korea may carry out military provocations as a way to test or challenge the new government. In particular, President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol has defined the Moon Jae-in administration’s Korean Peninsula peace process policy as a failure and is advocating a tougher stance on North Korea, which could increase military tensions around his inauguration in May.

A senior Blue House official also said regarding the background of holding an interim Cabinet meeting after a joint meeting of related agencies, "There was a prerequisite to dispel concerns about security gaps during the government transition related to the payment of contingency funds," adding, "I understand that differences regarding security gaps have been narrowed."

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