South Korea’s military on Sunday beefed up security ahead of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s inauguration to deal with any possible provocations from North Korea.

Monitoring of activities taking place in North Korea have been stepped up with all commanders having been ordered to remain on standby and be ready to return to their posts within an hour if any alarm is sounded, military sources said.

Without going into details, defense ministry insiders said tactical reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft have been deployed along with the E-737 Peace Eye airborne early warning and control airplane.

The Air Force’s F-15K and KF-16 fighters are to maintain round-the-clock air patrols near Seoul with the Navy’s surface combatants to be stationed offshore to deal with any North Korean provocation in a swift manner.

In addition, all divisions will operate an emergency response team on Monday with the country’s anti-terrorism personnel kept in readiness in case of an emergency situation.

“The high state of readiness will be maintained even after the inauguration ceremony that begins at 11 a.m. is completed, with things going back to normal only after authorities are certain there are no security threats,” a military officer stressed.

Park will assume control of the military as the country’s first female commander-in-chief just after midnight, and she has emphasized the need to maintain strong deterrence against North Korean aggression. 

(Yonhap News)