Seoul, Dec 23 (IANS): The South Korean military plans to set up a new team in charge of cyber operations in January under the wing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

According to a military official, a cyber tactics department will be established under the JCS in January to serve as a control tower of military cyber operations, Xinhua reported citing Yonhap News Agency.

The JCS chief will control and command all military operations in cyberspace, the official said.

It came as part of efforts to change cyber operation from defensive to proactive and preventive.

Another military official was quoted as saying that the military was seeing cyber warfare as becoming real, noting that it needed to preemptively detect and destroy cyber attacks from a certain country or unspecified forces.

The Military Cyber Command, a separate cyber warfare unit under the army, reportedly plans to increase human resources from the current 600 to 1,000, while developing the cyber weapon system for both attack and defence.

The military would boost cyber cooperation with US forces, planning to conduct the tabletop exercise (TTX) in around February next year for the enhancing of its cyber warfare capability.