Han Byung-do, acting leader and floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said Thursday that the party would move quickly to pass legislation establishing a unified armed forces academy that would merge the Army, Navy and Air Force academies.
Speaking at a party-government consultative meeting at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, Han said the party would "swiftly process the bill to establish the armed forces academy, lay the institutional groundwork, and provide timely budget support for new educational facilities."
Han said modern warfare "is expanding beyond AI, drones and cyber operations into the space domain, and the traditional boundaries between the military branches are being completely dismantled." He added that "now is the time to focus on cultivating integrated commanders — hexagonal talents capable of effectively conducting multi-domain operations."
He added that the current system of separate academies for each branch "faces several real-world limitations," and that "the fragmented, branch-specific training system creates structural difficulties in producing the military elite needed to command an integrated battlefield." Establishing a unified armed forces academy to train capable, integrated talent and future defense leaders for a smart, powerful military, he said, "is a task that can no longer be delayed."
Democratic Party policy committee chairwoman Han Jeong-ae said the party and government are pursuing a second round of defense reforms "to build a smart, high-tech military trusted by the public." She said that as the timeline for recovering wartime operational control — a goal of the Lee Jae-myung administration — becomes clearer, "creating an educational environment in which our military officers can lead combined Korea-US operations based on jointness is more urgent than anything else."
Han Jeong-ae said the integration of the service academies "is a long-overdue reform that has been attempted for years," and said claims that the move is politically motivated "are truly shameful remarks that denigrate the military's future blueprint — one that must take on stronger and firmer responsibility for our security amid a rapidly changing international order."
She said the party and government would "prepare concrete plans to complete the defense reform that can no longer be delayed — training elite officers capable of addressing population decline, preparing efficiently for future warfare, and conducting combined and joint operations." She added that the effort would be "strongly backed" through regulatory and legislative reforms and by reflecting the initiative in the 2027 budget.
Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said he had "never once thought the path of defense reform we must pioneer as a civilian minister — for the first time in 64 years — would be smooth. But I have never thought it impossible either," vowing to "complete the defense reform without looking left or right."
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