International journal of Military Affairs

Protection security organizations in the Republic of Korea were conceived in 1949 to provide protection security services to the first President, Rhee Syngman. It was in 1963 that the Presidential Security Service was created at the inauguration of the Park Chunghee administration, thereby launching hybrid security in conjunction with the National Police Agency. Ever since, the Presidential Security Service and the National Police Agency have taken numerous actions against threats of assassination from North Korea’s special forces and terrorism in the aftermath of the Korean War, and have taken counter-terrorist actions by North Korean Special Forces during the Korean War. Prominent examples include a surprise infiltration incident of 1968, the attempted assassination of President Park Chunghee in Seoul in 1974, and the attempted assassination of President Chun Doohwan in Myanmar in 1983. Presently, the hybrid security service has garnered commendations from abroad for successfully aiding large-scaled events such as Asia-Europe Meeting, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, G20 Summit, and Nuclear Security Summit to consummate. Unfortunately, however, there is not a great number of studies conducted on the hybrid security service. This study has undertaken a comparative analysis of the Presidential Security Service’s and the National Police Agency’s training and legal grounds from the theoretical perspective. Discussions were also made on the efficient directions for these two organizations. Consequently, the study discovered the organizations’ common goals, such as enhancing personal protection, maintenance of authority, maintenance of order, and citizen friendliness. Therefore, this study sought after ways to create an integrated form of the protection security organization, a break away from the two separate entities we currently have in Korea.

This study examined the effects of a military academy’s writing education program on the cadets’ development of short- and long-term writing performance with topics of military document. It intends to prove whether intensive writing course participants demonstrate higher grades at the end of a semester compared to non-participants. As academic writing is one of the most important objectives of college education, many universities and colleges offer short- and long-term writing courses for their students. Some of the courses are required, not optional, then the students need to participate in the intensive or developmental course to fulfill the writing assignments. Military officers have to write a daily report, drill & training plan, personnel management report, and many other military documents in their daily routine. They, for their duties, need more than intermediate level of writing proficiency for their long-term career development. Most of the military academies, therefore, offer writing courses in their regular curriculum to satisfy the cadets' educational need. Korea Army Academy at Yeong-choen(KAAY) educates and trains cadets as commissioned officers for Republic Korea Army (ROKA) who are fully equipped with competencies as commanding officers and staffs. Military cadets of KAAY, however, are not provided with writing courses in their regular curriculum although they need more than intermediate-level writing proficiency. For the purpose of this study, 23 participants of the writing program were employed as treatment group and another 23 non-participants were employed as control group. Two research questions guided the study: First, do the military cadets who participate in a military academy’s intensive writing course differ from non-participants in regard to writing test score? Second, is there a difference between cumulative grade point average for participants of the intensive writing course and non-participants? The independent variable of the study was defined as participation in the extra-curricular writing course. Participants were those cadets who fully completed the writing course for two months. Non-participants were those cadets who tested into the pretest writing assignment of military resume of less than 3 pages while participants and the non-participants were assigned posttest of writing a document of inauguration remark as a platoon leader. The first dependent variable was the grade of the diagnostic test on both treatment and control groups and the second dependent variable was the grade of the posttest. A t test was conducted to compare the mean pretest writing scores of both treatment and control groups. No significant difference was found be-tween treatment group(M = 61.31, SD = 10.53) and control group(M =62.07, SD = 9.86), t(df=62) = -1.03, p = .46. The results of the t test proved the equivalence of the both groups in the regard of writing proficiency. A covariance test of posttest score of writing was conducted to investigate whether a significant difference existed between the mean writing grades of posttest showed a significant difference. The treatment group(M = 73.85, SD = 12.08) demonstrated a higher mean writing grade on posttest(inauguration remark) than the control group(M = 65.29, SD = 11.04), F(1, 54) = 2.23, p = .03 with the covariate of pretest score.

This study analyzes the individual psychology of Kim Jong-un, who exercises absolute power over nuclear development in North Korea, in order to understand the issue of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities from a psychological point of view and to provide implications for solving the problem. ‘Personality’ is a concept used to explain a person’s behaviors. Allport theorized that personalities develop during the process of adapting to environments, and personalities structured in this way demonstrate coherent patterns of feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, identifying a person’s personality is important in that what he thinks, how he feels, and how he behaves can be predicted. Until now, there has been very little micro-approach, such as to the personalities of individuals, in the subject of North Korea. However, it is also meaningful to understand the psychological characteristics of this individual autocrat due to the nature of the North Korean regime, in which Kim’s family members monopolize power following the lead of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un. In particular, the issues of North Korea’s nuclear development and launching projectiles are highly dependent on the will and determination of Kim Jong-un. Therefore, Kim Jong-un’s personality is likely to have a direct impact on the North Korean nuclear issue. Based on various testimonies and data, there is no doubt that Kim Jong-un’s personality is self-centered, ostentatious, and impulsive. However, as Kurt Campbell, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia has stated, it is difficult to say that his personality is “un-predictable” or “violent”. As a son of an autocrat, he was raised exercising absolute power. The environment where his desire can come true without deficiency might have led him to become self-centered and ostensible. These personality traits can affect his decisions regarding the nuclear issue. According to Fujimoto Kenji’s testimony, Kim Jong-un said that he shoots missiles “impulsively” if he felt ignored or if his relationship with the United States could not be resolved. When considering his self-centered and ostensible characteristics, it is possible to predict the time and condition where he can be impulsive. The predictability of Kim’s behaviors lies in the type of character he possesses. Kim Jong-un is thought to be someone with a self-centered, impulsive and ostentatious personality, and can be classified as having a narcissistic personality disorder. A person with narcissistic personality establishes relation-ships with others only to reveal his superiority, and experiences a sense of humiliation and frustration in situations where he cannot do so. However, in cases where the superiority is frustrated, narcissistic personality has a tendency to maintain his sense of superiority through self-rationalization rather than changing external conditions. Such nature of North Korea’s society and Kim Jong-un’s personality pro-vides the following implications regarding the North Korean nuclear issue. First, it seems that there is virtually no reason for Kim Jong-un to give up the country’s nuclear capabilities due to the practical and psychological benefits(superiority) they hold for North Korea and Kim Jong-un himself. Second, however, it is unlikely that North Korea will use its nuclear capabilities to launch a preemptive attack or war considering Kim’s narcissistic personality. Third, the messages implied in North Korea’s behaviors in relation to their nuclear capabilities still need to be considered carefully.