[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Defense Attach?s in the Defense Industry Without Career Management

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] There are criticisms that personnel management of defense attach?s, who are dispatched to overseas missions and handle military diplomacy, is lax. The Ministry of National Defense has significantly increased the number of defense attach?s to boost defense exports, but when they complete their terms, they are assigned to positions unrelated to their previous duties, resulting in low utilization.

The Ministry of National Defense has dispatched logistics attach?s to each country separately for defense exports. However, the logistics attach? system was abolished in 2011 due to overlapping duties among attach?s, and defense attach?s took over defense export tasks.

The problem lies in personnel management after the term ends. According to Article 12 of the Ministry of National Defense regulations, after completing a three-year term, defense attach?s should be re-dispatched as resident attach?s or assigned to positions related to defense diplomacy or overseas intelligence.

However, examining the subsequent positions of 199 attach?s who completed their terms since 2015 shows that just over half were assigned to policy departments (109) or re-dispatched (16), which are related positions. On the other hand, many were assigned to unrelated positions such as commanders (6), other posts (49), or discharged (19).

Among the 77 attach?s dispatched to various countries this year, 46 have more than five years until retirement. The criticism arises because they return to the military after their term and should be assigned to positions related to their previous duties.

A military official said, "It takes a long time to build a personal network in the country where the attach? is dispatched, so it is important to continuously manage the information sources once established."