Adm. Choi, if approved by the National Assembly, will be the first chief of naval operations to head the JCS. Incumbent JCS Chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo's two-year term will expire soon.
Since the JCS was launched in 1954, only Army generals have assumed the JCS chairmanship except for one case - Air Force Gen. Lee Yang-ho served as JSC chief during the 1990s.
"The military chose the chief of naval operations as the new JCS chairman to enhance interoperability between the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps," said Park Dae-seop, chief of human resources and welfare at the defense ministry.
"We think that in light of recent North Korean provocations in the western sea, the Navy chief is suitable enough for the JCS chairmanship," he said.
In the first reshuffle of top military generals since the inauguration of President Park Geun-hye last February, Vice Adm. Hwang Ki-chul, superintendent of the Naval Academy, was named as new Navy chief.
Gen. Kwon Oh-sung, deputy commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), was appointed to head the Army.
The appointments are subject to approval at a Cabinet meeting slated for Thursday.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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