"As part of the defense reform tasks being drawn up with 2040 in mind, there was a review of how to adjust the Marine 2nd Division's mission and base location, and the military leadership has formed a consensus on the need for it."
A Ministry of National Defense official who met with this reporter recently said the mission of the Marine Corps' 2nd Division has been discussed as a task to be pursued under the "2040 Basic Defense Reform Plan" that the government will present. The official suggested the 2nd Division could halt its coastal defense mission and have its mission and base location adjusted in line with its role as a national strategic mobile force.
The current administration is pursuing a reorganization of the Marine Corps into what President Lee Jae-myung called a "quasi-fourth service" in his campaign pledge. The Marine Corps would remain under the Navy as it is now, but the Marine Corps commandant would be given command and supervisory authority comparable to that of the Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs of staff, guaranteeing its independence.
To that end, military authorities first plan to return operational control of the Marine Corps' main units, the 1st and 2nd divisions, to the Marine Corps after 50 years. They plan to restore and complete the transfer of both wartime and peacetime operational control of the Marine 1st Division, currently under the operational control of the Army's Second Operations Command, ahead of schedule by the end of 2026.
Operational control of the Marine 2nd Division, currently under the operational control of the Army's Capital Corps, is also to be returned to the Marine Corps within 2028 so that it commands its subordinate units. For the 2nd Division, however, only peacetime operational control will revert to the Marine Corps, with the Capital Corps continuing to exercise wartime operational control.
The reorganization into a quasi-fourth service does not end there. As one element of the basic defense reform plan targeting 2040, military authorities are also reviewing a plan to transfer the Marine 2nd Division's coastal defense operations to the Army and adjust its mission toward amphibious operations and island defense, in keeping with its role as a national strategic mobile force.
The defense ministry official said, "It is the shared view of the military leadership that the primary missions of the Marine Corps, as a national strategic mobile force, are amphibious operations, rapid response operations and strategic island defense operations." The official added, "There were discussions on adjusting the Marine 2nd Division's mission and base location to strengthen capabilities for these operations."
Military Leadership Agrees on Dedicated Marine Missions, Force Buildup
The core of the plan under discussion is that, given the rapidly changing nature of modern warfare, the coastal defense mission covering the Gimpo and Ganghwa Island areas should be transferred entirely to the Army and the Marine 2nd Division redeployed to the rear, so that the Marine Corps can carry out its own missions in full as a national strategic mobile force.
The Marine Corps operates two division-level units with formidable combat power — the 1st and 2nd divisions — along with two brigade-level units, the 6th Brigade and the Yeonpyeong unit. The 2nd Division, however, is stationed in the Gimpo and Ganghwa areas and has been responsible for coastal defense operations spanning 255 kilometers, leaving it short of a full national strategic mobile force.
The coastal defense zone is longer than the Military Demarcation Line, which runs 250 kilometers. The demarcation line is guarded by about 10 Army divisions. Some classify the Marine 2nd Division as a capital defense unit guarding the front line of the western sector protecting Seoul, the heart of the country. That is also why it falls under Capital Corps control.
For this reason, a plan was reportedly discussed to redeploy the Marine 2nd Division to a position south of the Navy's 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, placing division-level landing forces on both the left and right sides of the Korean Peninsula. A posture allowing attack from either the East Sea or the West Sea could serve as a strategy to topple the North Korean leadership in a single blow in the event of a contingency.
If the Marine 2nd Division's base location is adjusted, the front-line defense of the western flank and the coastal defense mission would be taken over by the Army's 51st and 17th divisions under the Capital Corps, and the Army's 9th Division under the First Corps, which handles riverbank defense in another part of the western sector, is also being considered for participation in the coastal defense mission, according to sources.
A military source said, "It is the shared view of the military leadership in the defense reform discussions that coastal defense operations should be handled by the Army in preparation for rapidly changing modern warfare, and that the Marine Corps, as a national strategic mobile force, needs to build up its strength while taking exclusive charge of its own missions such as amphibious operations, rapid response operations and strategic island defense operations. The adjustment of the Marine 2nd Division's mission and base location should be seen as an extension of that."
