“Thanks to all of you standing here, freedom and peace will stay with us.”

So said President Park Geun-hye as she congratulated new officers at the 4th joint commissioning ceremony where 5,860 new officers from the army, navy, air force and marines received their commission. The ceremony was held on February 6 at Gyeryongdae in Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong Province), Korea’s main military compound.

“If there is ever any change in the inter-Korean relationship or in the security situation, we can open the door to reunification of the two Koreas as long as our military forces fulfill their duty to protect the country and the people,” said the president. “I trust your patriotism and loyalty to the nation and we will surely make reunification happen on the Korean Peninsula, as is desired by the people.



At the commissioning ceremony, attended by more than 28,000, including the new officers and their families, President Park said, “The biggest stumbling block to possible economic cooperation between the two Koreas is the North’s nuclear ambition. If the North takes sincere steps to denuclearize, Seoul and the international community could work toward helping the North develop and move toward co-prosperity across Northeast Asia, as well as toward peace across the peninsula.”



“We are now living in a world where national security faces more diverse and complex threats,” President Park said. “Neighboring countries in Northeast Asia are getting more engaged in historical or territorial conflicts, as well as accelerating an already fierce arms race.”

The president also cited a rise in non-military and supernational threats, such as cyber attacks or colossal natural disaster, to which she suggested a solution: “In order to respond to such threats in an effective manner, we should establish an ‘full-range, all-out’ national security strategy to allow the military to coordinate and integrate all defense operations at any sign of threat, and build a close structure of cooperation with related organizations.”



At the ceremony, 341 of the 5,860 newly commissioned officers were female, 178 more than last year. Amongst them, four were the first-ever commissioned ROTC officers in the air force, while also for the first time some of the new women officers were in the army’s artillery and air defense branches, traditionally male-dominated branches. A total of 65 universities, including Seoul National University, produced female ROTC officers this year.

By Jeon Han, Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writers
hanjeon@korea.kr