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

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)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.