South Korea's defense ministry said Monday it plans to create a cybersecurity technology team and a multilateral security department in an organizational change.

It would instead abolish a culture policy department tasked with improving life in the barracks amid continued reports of bullying cases in the nation's 625,000-strong military.

In an advance notice of a related bill on the scheme, the first in a decade to redraw the organizational chart of its headquarters, the ministry said its existing morale-boosting policy department will take over the duty, with the size of its entire workforce unchanged.

The decision to launch an independent team to specialize in cybersecurity-related technology on top of the cyberpolicy department came as concern has grown about North Korea's cyberwarfare capability.

Last year, the South Korean military's intranet suffered hacking attacks.

Some military data, reportedly including some confidential information on the South Korea-US joint operational plans, were leaked. The South's authorities blamed the North for the incident.

The ministry will also establish a department on multilateral security cooperation to deal more effectively with defense partnerships with other countries.

South Korea has hosted the annual Seoul Defense Dialogue, a regional security forum involving senior military officials, since 2012. (Yonhap)