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Jeong Kyeong-doo

During his confirmation hearing on Aug. 18, Jeong Kyeong-doo, who has been nominated to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that South Korea could achieve air superiority within three days of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula. There was also an argument about the “red line” that President Moon Jae-in announced the previous day.

During Jeong’s confirmation hearing, which was held in the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Lee Jong-myeong asked how many days it would take for the navy and air force to achieve superiority throughout the Korean Peninsula. While acknowledging the difficulty of giving a definite answer, Jeong said that, according to current strategic doctrine, it would be possible to achieve air superiority within three days. This appears to mean that North Korea’s air force and anti-air defenses could be sufficiently reduced within three days for South Korean aircraft to operate freely in North Korean airspace.

“I think it would be inappropriate to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons while calling for North Korea’s denuclearization. I think we should be applying diplomatic and economic pressure,” Jeong said in regard to the Liberty Korea Party’s recent addition of the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons to its official party platform. Jeong also took a cautious stance on the possibility of a preemptive strike against North Korea, observing that “a preemptive strike may be one option, but I think its implementation would have to be reviewed with great care.” When asked about the possibility of scaling back the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian joint exercises between South Korean and US forces that will be starting on Aug. 21, Jeong denied that any such plans were currently under consideration.

Opposition lawmakers criticized President Moon for publicly setting a “red line” for North Korea the previous day and asked Jeong for his opinion. Numerous lawmakers, including Lee Jong-myeong and Jeong Jin-seok from the Liberty Korea Party and Kim Jong-ro from the People’s Party, took the offensive, arguing that “from South Korea’s point of view, North Korea has already crossed the red line.”

People’s Party lawmaker Kim Dong-cheol added his voice to the criticism by saying that “it was a strategic mistake to openly draw a red line that not even the US has announced.” In response to this criticism, Jeong said, “President Moon seems to have meant that we ought to be doing everything we can to prevent a crisis situation in which we find ourselves at a dead end.”

Following Jeong’s confirmation hearing in the National Defense Committee, the report on the hearing proceedings was unanimously approved during a full session of the National Assembly, after which Moon completed the appointment process by approving the report electronically.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff reporter

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