The South Korean military is drawing up an offensive-defense strategy aimed at concluding a military conflict with North Korea within the shortest time possible.

The plan, revealed by the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the parliamentary audit Monday, calls for the country’s surveillance and missile capabilities to be strengthened. 

“A war plan designed to enable early neutralization of critical targets, and to win within the shortest possible time within minimum casualties will be established,” the JCS revealed at the audit.

The JCS said that as part of the plans, the military will reinforce its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in order to detect signs of provocation in advance.

“Mid- and long-range and high-power precision strike capabilities will be secured in order to neutralize the enemy’s asymmetric warfare capabilities.”

According to the JSC, the concept of offensive-defense has already been integrated into the country’s military strategy.

The JCS said that under the offensive-defense strategy, the country’s armed forces would go on the offense quickly after North Korea launches its invasion. The strategy also calls for the front to be rapidly expanded deep into enemy territory to “establish conditions for unification,” the JCS said.

The JCS also revealed that Seoul is working with the US to improve the country’s ability to monitor activities, and working on establishing a surveillance system that uses images from multiple sources.

JCS also informed the lawmakers that the military plans work with concerned government ministries to introduce regular evacuation exercises for the public in preparation for possible North Korean attack using nuclear weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction.

Regarding its plans for conventional warfare, the JCS said that the Agency for Defense Development was working on a system for defending against North Korean long range artillery, similar to Israel’s Iron Dome system.

According to reports, South Korea had considered importing the Israeli system, but scrapped the idea due to high costs, and as the system was deemed insufficient in dealing with a sustained artillery attack.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)