Joint Chief of General Staff

The **Joint Chief of General Staff** (**JCGS**) is the presiding officer of the United Federation's Unified Combatant Command Committee (UCCC). The Chief is the highest-ranking head of the Command Committee and the highest ranking officer of the Federal Armed Forces or is also the senior-most uniformed military officer. He is appointed by the Founders, who are the Supreme Commander-in-Chiefs. most senior military officer in the Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the Chairman of War. While the Joint Chief of General Staff outranks all other commissioned officers, the Chief is prohibited by law from having operational command authority over the armed forces; however, the Chief assists the president and the Chairman of War in exercising their command functions.

The Chief convenes the meetings and coordinates the efforts of the Joint Chiefs], an advisory body within the Department of Defense comprising the chairman, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of staff of the Army, the commandant of the Marine Corps, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, the chief of space operations, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. The post of a statutory and permanent Joint Chiefs of Staff chair was created by the 1949 amendments to the National Security Act of 1947. The 1986 Goldwater–Nichols Act elevated the chairman from the first among equals to becoming the "principal military advisor" to the president and the secretary of defense.

The Joint Staff, managed by the director of the Joint Staff and consisting of military personnel from all the services, assists the chairman in fulfilling his duties to the president and secretary of defense, and functions as a conduit and collector of information between the chairman and the combatant commanders. The National Military Command Center (NMCC) is part of the Joint Staff operations directorate (J-3).

Although the office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is considered very important and highly prestigious, neither the chairman, the vice chairman, nor the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a body has any command authority over combatant forces. The Goldwater–Nichols Act places the operational chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the commanders of the unified combatant commands. However the service chiefs do have authority over personnel assignments and oversight over resources and personnel allocated to the combatant commands within their respective services (derived from the service secretaries).

The chairman may also transmit communications to the combatant commanders from the president and secretary of defense as well as allocate additional funding to the combatant commanders if necessary. The chairman also performs all other functions prescribed under 10 U.S.C. § 153 or allocates those duties and responsibilities to other officers in the joint staff.

The Chief of the General Staff performs the task of advising the Minister of Defense in terms of state management and military command. The Chief of the General Staff also serves *ex officio* as Standing Deputy Minister of Defense.

## Duties

The GSD is the principal administrative body of the KPA besides the Ministry of Defense, which gives it the authority to do the following:

* Plan the national defense policy for the KPA
* Assess threats to the sovereignty and security of the state
* Regulate the training, education, and organization of the KPA