Ruling Party and Government to Consolidate Military Academies into Unified 'Armed Forces Academy'

▲ Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back speaks at the 2026 First Half Major Military Commanders Meeting held at the Ministry of National Defense conference room in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on July 1.

The Democratic Party of Korea and the government have agreed to concentrate their efforts on accelerating the establishment of a four-year unified Armed Forces Academy, integrating the existing Army, Navy, and Air Force academies.

The ruling party and government discussed specific measures to achieve this during a consultative meeting held at the National Assembly.

Han Byung-do, acting leader and floor leader of the Democratic Party, stated during the meeting, "We must now focus on cultivating integrated commanders and all-around talent capable of competently executing multi-domain operations. Unfortunately, the individual Army, Navy, and Air Force academies have reached various limitations."

"The establishment of an Armed Forces Academy to foster future defense leaders who will guide a smart, powerful military and serve as competent, integrated talent is a task that cannot be delayed," Han emphasized. "The party will spare no support to ensure the Armed Forces Academy becomes a world-class institution."

Han Jeoung-ae, policy committee chair of the Democratic Party, noted, "The integration of military academies is a long-delayed reform that has been attempted for a long time. Discussions on integrating the academies began with the launch of the Kim Young-sam administration, and various integration plans were also discussed during the Roh Moo-hyun administration in connection with future population decline."

Addressing public opposition to the integration, the policy chair remarked, "It is a disparagement of the military's future blueprint for taking strong and firm responsibility for national security amidst a rapidly changing global order. We will invest a large-scale budget, including the expansion of top-tier faculty and state-of-the-art facilities."

Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back added, "As the first civilian Minister of National Defense in 64 years, I have never thought that defense reform would be smooth, but I have also never thought it was impossible. I will complete the defense reform without hesitation."

(Photo: Provided by Ministry of National Defense, Yonhap News)

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