Naval officer who first detected NK rocket launch promoted

Naval officer who first detected NK rocket launch promoted. April. 26, 2012 06:05. ysh1005@donga.com.

A non-commissioned South Korean naval officer who first detected North Korea’s long-range rocket launch April 13 will receive a decoration and promotion, the first special promotion of naval servicemen since the 1999 inter-Korean sea skirmish off the west coast.

Chief Petty Officer Heo Gwang-joon, who has been serving as a radar operator aboard the South Korean Aegis destroyer King Sejong the Great since 2007, was the first to detect the rocket on a radar screen at 7:39 a.m. April 13 and reported that the target was believed to a North Korean rocket. He detected the projectile 54 seconds after launch. “Thinking that the North would likely launch the rocket April 13 because the weather the following two days was expected to be bad, I concentrated on (the North’s) Tongchang-ri base when I detected the target,” he said.

The Navy will hold a ceremony for Heo`s promotion Friday aboard the destroyer, which is scheduled to be at the port of Jinhae in South Gyeongsang Province. Navy Chief of Staff Choi Yun-hee will lead the ceremony.

After the detection was made, the Sejong quickly tracked the rocket, which disappeared on radar as it exploded over the Yellow Sea just two minutes after launch. Only then could Heo and other naval staff breathe a sigh of relief. Heo also served as a radar operator on the same vessel in April 2009, when the North launched a long-range rocket from its Musudan-ri base in North Hamgyong Province.

Heo’s father is a retired naval master sergeant and his younger brother is also a chief petty officer at the Incheon Coast Defense Command. Crediting his detection to the joint efforts by the entire crew of the Sejong, Heo pledged to continue doing his best to defend South Korean waters.