SOUTH Korea’s president Lee Jae Myung approved the appointments of three Cabinet ministers, including Kang Shin-chul as the new minister of national defence. Kang is former Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) four-star general who had most recently served as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Saudi Arabia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He had served as secretary for defence reform at the Office of National Security, secretary for security and defence strategy, deputy commander of the Ground Operations Command, and director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), before becoming deputy commander of the ROK-US CFC before entering retirement last year.
After taking office, Kang said that he would push ahead with the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) based on trust between South Korea and the US, emphasising that the process should strengthen their alliance and combined defence posture.“OPCON transfer will move in a direction that strengthens the Korea-US alliance,” Kang said.-–shp/adj/dl (Pix:MND)
