Audit finds unloaded guns on duty across South Korea's front-line corps

A South Korean defence ministry audit has found that guards at front-line posts in every Army corps responsible for the inter-Korean border carried some weapons without live rounds loaded, according to audit results that the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kang Sun-young obtained on 4 October. The cases covered general outposts and guard posts in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th Corps, as well as the Marine Corps 2nd Division, which follows Capital Corps directions for coastal and riverside guard duty.

The ministry began the internal audit in August. In the 1st Corps, which covers the western front, guards had worked since January without live ammunition fitted to K2 rifles, K6 heavy machine guns and K4 automatic grenade launchers, under orders from the corps commander. In the 2nd Corps, some K16 machine guns at guard posts and K15 and K6 machine guns at general outposts were found unloaded.

The 3rd Corps left its crew-served weapons without live rounds for about a month from June, describing the step as a combat experiment, and guards at posts of its 22nd Division went without loaded personal weapons for an extended period. The 5th Corps reportedly kept every weapon at its outposts unloaded except K2 rifles. The Marine division stood guard with both personal and crew-served weapons empty.

Front-line guard rules require magazines holding live rounds to be fitted to weapons. The Joint Chiefs of Staff sets how much ammunition guards carry, while the Army Ground Operations Command sets the principles for loading and carrying it. A corps commander who changes that guidance is supposed to report it to the Ground Operations Command for review first. The ministry said some units were carrying certain weapons unloaded at the time of inspection without any revised guideline or supporting official document.

The ministry's audit office concluded that neither the Joint Chiefs nor the Ground Operations Command knew about the practice. The ministry plans institutional warnings for the Ground Operations Command, the 1st, 2nd and 5th Corps and the 22nd Division, and an improvement order for the Joint Chiefs to close gaps in its oversight system.

No individual commander or staff officer will be disciplined, including Lt. Gen. Han Ki-sung, the former 1st Corps commander who was removed from duty over the issue. The ministry said it could not establish exactly when units departed from the rules and that too many people were involved in each unit to single out individuals. Kang said the military leadership should reflect seriously on the fact that the two top operational headquarters had been unaware.

The problem first surfaced in late July, when the Chosun Ilbo reported that the 1st Corps had told guards to keep K6 machine guns unloaded with ammunition placed beside them. The Joint Chiefs said at the time that it had not known of the change and that the Ground Operations Command would inspect the five corps under its command. The 1st Corps directive was reportedly meant to prevent accidental discharges.

Kang's office said all of the cases began after December 2023, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un defined relations between the two Koreas as those of hostile states. Over the same period North Korean troops have repeatedly crossed the Military Demarcation Line to lay mines and put up fences. Kang's office counted more than 50 crossings since August, and a mine blast on 21 September wounded three South Korean military officers.

Some military sources questioned how the top headquarters could have been unaware and said the findings appear to shift blame onto the corps. The current Ground Operations Command chief, Gen. Lee Sang-yeol, approved a guideline earlier this year while leading the 3rd Corps that let checkpoint guards in front-line divisions carry batons instead of rifles. That guideline was withdrawn after media reports, and Lee took over the Ground Operations Command in April after promotion to four-star general.