South Korea removes 1st Corps commander over live‑ammo policy and US drone incident

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense announced that Lieutenant General Han Gi‑sung, commander of the Army’s 1st Corps, has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation. The action follows two recent controversies: a change in patrol guidelines that kept live ammunition out of standard‑issue weapons, and a near‑miss during a joint exercise in which a U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance drone was mistakenly identified as an unidentified aerial object and almost shot down.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the drone incident resulted from informal text‑message communication between Korean and U.S. personnel and a failure to follow official air‑space control approval procedures on both sides. The Army Education Command will serve as interim commander of the 1st Corps, and both militaries have pledged to tighten coordination on air‑space management.