'Faster, more precise, more effective victories'

'Without the right concepts, even drones and AI are useless'

Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul. [National Assembly Press Photographers]
Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul. [National Assembly Press Photographers]

Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said Monday that the day when AI replaces nuclear weapons as the world's primary deterrent is not far off, adding that AI will become the core pillar supporting a military that no adversary would dare challenge.

Kang made the remarks in a welcoming address at the opening ceremony of the Defense AX Hub in Pangyo, saying the atomic age is drawing to a close and AI is ushering in a new era of deterrence.

He described the kind of military AI would help build as one that wins "faster, more precisely and more effectively."

Kang said that establishing clear operational concepts is a prerequisite for the military's AI transformation — deciding how to fight with advanced technology matters just as much as acquiring it. "At this very moment, countries around the world are fiercely competing to integrate AI into their defense sectors," he said. "What matters is that concepts drive technology, not the other way around. No matter how advanced the technology becomes, without the right concepts in place, even the most cutting-edge drones and AI cannot be used properly."

"The question we still need to ask is: how do we fight?" he said. "Only when we establish the concept first does advanced technology become a tool for victory."

Kang identified people as the link between concepts and technology. "Ultimately, it is people who connect concepts and technology," he said. "Only when their experience and wisdom come together does technology become real capability."

The Defense AX Hub is designed as a space where the military shares the challenges and experiences it faces in the field, while companies, universities and research institutions pool their technology and expertise.

"The Defense AX Hub is that meeting place," Kang said. "Today we mark its first point here in Pangyo." The Pangyo hub will focus on physical AI collaboration, with plans to expand to hubs in Yongsan, Daejeon, Busan and Yangjae, each cultivating AI technologies suited to the characteristics of the respective military branch.

Near the end of his address, Kang invoked Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" to underscore the transformation of the future battlefield. "With the advance of cutting-edge science and technology, the battlefield has once again become a place where 'what thinks, exists,'" he said. "The age of Descartes' revival has arrived." He closed by telling those gathered that they are the ones who will bring thinking things into existence through the Defense AX Hub.


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