The military authorities announced today (July 31) that they have issued a short-range directive to frontline border-operation units instructing them to maintain loaded live ammunition, following a controversy over the Army's 1st Corps' guideline of leaving boundary-operation weapons unloaded.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Republic of Korea Army Ground Operations Command handed down the directive the previous day to frontline corps conducting boundary operations at General Outposts (GOP) and frontline Guard Posts (GP).

Consequently, the Army's 1st Corps is also known to be conducting border operations with live ammunition reloaded into crew-served weapons, such as K6 heavy machine guns and K4 high-speed grenade launchers.

The 1st Corps, which oversees the Western Front, sparked controversy after it was revealed that it had changed its border-operation guidelines starting in the first half of this year to prevent live rounds from being inserted into crew-served weapons like K6 heavy machine guns and K4 high-speed grenade launchers during GP and GOP border operations.

While the principle for South Korean military weapon operation in frontline units involves loading live ammunition, the 1st Corps reportedly altered its boundary-operation guidelines under the discretion of the corps commander to prevent accidental discharges.

The Army Ground Operations Command has been inspecting the actual state of boundary operations across five frontline corps, including the 1st, Capital, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Corps, starting from the previous day.

(Photo: Provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yonhap News)