Here is another sign that times are changing in South Korea because the former President Roh Moo-hyun in his own words would never have agreed to such a change in Korean defense strategy:

The South Korean Army plans to deploy about 2,000 advanced wheeled armored vehicles beginning around 2013 to build rapid-response brigades modeled after U.S. Stryker combat brigades, a military source said Sunday.

The plan is a core part of the Army’s efforts to transform itself into a slimmer but more mobile, network-centric force with increased firepower under the Defense Reform 2020 initiative with its operational focus shifting from a North Korean invasion to a counteroffensive or other forms of offensive action into North Korea, the source said.

The scheme is to be specified in a revised version of Defense Reform 2020 that will be unveiled in the coming weeks, he said.

“In the case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, wheeled armored vehicle brigades will play a leading role in advancing into North Korea, neutralizing key enemy targets, stabilizing North Korean society in captured areas or securing humanitarian aid, while mechanized divisions and corps consisting of sophisticated tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other artilleries back them up,” the source told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity.  [Korea Times]

Here is the best thing about the article, that the US and Korea are finally beginning to develop strategies to deal with possible regime collapse in North Korea:

The source apparently referred to ongoing moves by South Korea and the United States to develop a conceptual scenario to prepare for a collapse of North Korea into a full-fledged operational plan, following a swirl of reports on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s health setbacks.

The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command drew up a conceptual action plan, codenamed CONPLAN 5029, in 1999 to respond to various types of internal instability in the North, including sudden regime collapse and mass influx of North Korean refugees.

Other contingency situations include a civil war provoked by revolt or coup, South Korean hostages being held in the North, natural disasters and insurgents’ seizure of weapons of mass destruction if the regime is involved in a domestic crisis or suddenly collapses.

Maj. Gen. Rim Chi-cue, chief and director general of Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA)’s procurement programs management bureau, confirmed the move, saying a related procurement program is scheduled to begin by 2010 to equip the Army with about 2,000 high-tech wheeled armored vehicles.

I guess it is better late then never, but these plans should have been developed years ago.  It is good to see that the ROK military is finally changing defense strategies to prepare to deal with what is probably the most dangerous threat to the country which is the collapse of the North Korean regime.