The Defense Ministry promoted nearly 120 colonel- and general-grade officers Wednesday in a routine shake-up that also affected the chief of the Capital Defense Command and the deputy chiefs of the Army and the Navy.

Five Army major generals were promoted to lieutenant generals, including Lt. Gen. Shin won-sik, who was also appointed to head the Capital Defense Command, and Lt. Gen. Hwang In-moo, who was named the deputy Army chief of staff, the ministry said.

In the Navy, Vice Admiral Sohn Jung-mok was named the new vice chief of the service, while Vice Admiral Jung Ho-sup was appointed as the new chief of the Navy Operations Command, the ministry said.

A total of 20 one-star generals in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force were elevated to two-star officers, while 93 colonel-grade officers in the three services were promoted to one-star generals, the ministry said.

Lt. Gen. Bae Dek-sig, chief of the Defense Security Command, was retained in his post despite recent revelations that some DSC officers had been involved in embezzlement and other irregularities, and the agency attempted to cover them up.

Excluded from the promotions were senior Army officers facing disciplinary measures over the failure to detect a North Korean soldier’s Oct. 2 crossing of the heavily fortified border in a defection attempt.

More than a dozen officers are facing a reprimand following revelations that the military was unaware of the crossing until the North Korean soldier knocked at the barracks door of a front-line unit. (Yonhap News)