While Korea had pursued a closed-defense policy with continent-oriented national policy and national development strategy before modernization, but, after the liberation from Japan and the Korean War, it has been regarded as a successful model of a na...
While Korea had pursued a closed-defense policy with continent-oriented national policy and national development strategy before modernization, but, after the liberation from Japan and the Korean War, it has been regarded as a successful model of a nation in politics and economics, pursuing a ocean-oriented national policy and vision. One of the factors contributed to national development was to put emphasis on maritime industry and develop maritime power. As the status of Korean maritime industry had been being risen along with industrialization, Korea entered the ranks of advanced countries and proved its national status as a advanced country in the international community by hosting G-20 summit in 2010. Internally, however, the absence of the government's active management and the lack of appropriate policies have led to various problems in the ocean. The government's maritime policy which failed to meet the rapid growth of the nation's marine transportation industry has caused an expected disaster such as safety management issues of Sewol ferry and the failure of Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd. Still, we are exposed to the threat of war as the only divided nation in the world and also facing an economic crisis that key industries are faltering. Under these crises, institutional measures should be prioritized for early settlement of the ‘National Essential Shipping Program’ and a new maritime policy and maritime strategy must be established among the government ministries. In particular, the pivotal point of the ‘National Essential Shipping Program’ should be initiated from national-security perspective. Considering the availability for military purpose, ships' use should be classified by its strategic, operational, and tactical aspects. In addition, maritime manpower and port service should be well interconnected, which requires a close coordination among the government ministries. Furthermore, the government needs to review and recalculate the demand for mobilizing international ships in terms of 'the goods for sustaining government's function' and 'the supportive goods for people's survival and stability. What is more important is that 88 ships currently designated for the National Maritime System by Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries should be reconsidered whether it is proper volume or not since current volume has not considered the ships to be deployed for supplying munitions and transporting troops in wartime according to the Korea-US military treaty and loss factor of ship's damage. Therefore, to establish a solid foundation for 2018 National Maritime System, there should be more advanced research. For this reason, it is significantly demanded that naval personnel specialized in mobilization and experts in maritime logistics industry come forward to form a consultative group and become active participants.