Coast Guard Cheong Focuses on 'Security, Safety, Innovation'... Strengthening Patrol, Investigation, and Field Response Capabilities

The Korea Coast Guard will strengthen maritime patrol and investigative capabilities as well as on-site response to promote public livelihood policies focused on security, safety, and innovation within this year.

According to the "2024 Major Policy Implementation Plan" announced by the Coast Guard on the 7th, the Coast Guard plans to increase the number of large patrol vessels from the current 36 to 40 by 2026, adding 4 ships to reinforce maritime patrol capabilities.

Additionally, following the endemic phase, the appearance of Chinese fishing vessels in the Northern Limit Line (NLL) area of the West Sea has steadily increased, and collective illegal fishing continues in permitted waters. Therefore, enforcement forces will be pre-deployed at major entry points, and a dedicated mobile task force will be operated.

This year, the Coast Guard will also focus on strengthening on-site response and investigative capabilities. In December last year, the head of the headquarters situation room was promoted to the rank of Senior Superintendent to enable immediate decision-making and swift on-site response during various maritime accidents. Furthermore, new coastal rescue boats and advanced underwater search equipment will be expanded at each substation.

To secure safe sea routes, following Gunsan and Mokpo last year, the Jeju Regional Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) Center is scheduled to open this year. By 2026, the establishment of the East Sea and Pohang VTS will gradually increase the control range from 41.5% to 50% of the territorial waters.

Korea Coast Guard

Moreover, a "Serious Crime Investigation Team" has been newly established to directly investigate nationwide large-scale crimes and efficiently support investigations of maritime disaster accidents. The Coast Guard plans to strongly respond to corporate crimes such as large-scale port corruption and national subsidy fraud, as well as crimes infringing on public livelihood.

To block large-scale drug smuggling through the sea, international cooperation with India, Asia, and Pacific countries will be strengthened. At the same time, drug enforcement personnel will be expanded, and the related budget increased by 139%, from 700 million KRW to 1.7 billion KRW. Last year, the drug investigation task force, newly established by the Coast Guard for the first time, arrested 461 drug offenders, a 57% increase compared to the previous year.

Scientific and technological capabilities will also be steadily enhanced to prepare for the future maritime era and become a smart Coast Guard.

This year marks the third year of developing the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) platform based on advanced technologies such as satellites. To implement the government's core policy of digital platform administration, a dedicated special task force (TF) will be formed to promote administrative innovation using artificial intelligence (AI).

Kim Jong-wook, Commissioner of the Korea Coast Guard, stated, "We will operate a 'One-Stop Solution Team' to resolve chronic civil complaints and local issues, and strive for innovative organizational management through performance- and competency-based personnel appointments. This year as well, we will build a Coast Guard faithful to the basics to safeguard national security at sea."

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