The National Information Society Agency (NIA) said it held a performance-sharing event for 'Jangbyeong e-um' with the Ministry of National Defense on Sept. 28 at Peace & Park Convention in Seoul and will launch the full service in October.

Jangbyeong e-um is the defence ministry's first platform built on a private-sector cloud. It integrates into a single platform services that were previously spread across 46 systems. It links services across the full lifecycle of service members, from conscription assessment before enlistment to personnel, administration, welfare, medical and education services during service, and reserve duty after discharge. The service targets about 7 million people, including 450,000 active-duty service members, military families, civilian military employees, prospective conscripts and veterans.

It also introduced the first mobile military ID in the defence sector. Users can receive paper certificates such as military career certificates and discharge certificates in mobile form. Military families can also use military supermarkets without separately printing family relationship certificates.

Jangbyeong e-um also uses a private-sector multi-cloud. Naver Cloud provides infrastructure services, and Kakao Enterprise provides graphics processing unit (GPU) services. It explained that dynamic allocation, which automatically increases or decreases computing resources depending on usage, improved cost efficiency and system stability.

NIA and the defence ministry began a beta service in February with 32 core services, including the mobile ID and personnel and administrative functions. About 400,000 service members have signed up, with 89 percent of all service members using it. The full service in October will add 14 services, including an AI chatbot and electronic wallet-based issuance of mobile certificates.

The event shared results from the past three years of building Jangbyeong e-um and its main functions, and included service demonstrations. Deok-jin Kim (김덕진), head of the IT Communication Research Institute, delivered a special lecture on the topic of development directions for the defence sector in the era of AI agents.

Hyung-chul Kim (김형철), president of NIA, said: "Jangbyeong e-um is a bridge that smartly connects service members and military families, and a key milestone in the advanced technology-based digital transformation of national defence."