Korea's military has a new high-tech command system that uses real-time multimedia reports to keep top brass informed and in control of what's going on in the field as it happens.

Called the Korea Joint Command Control System, or KJCCS, the system lets military leaders command battlefield units as they watch up-to-the-minute reports on a large-screen monitor in the Joint Chiefs of Staff situation room.

KJCCS was launched on Jan. 1 after three years and tens of billions of won in development (US$1=W939).

The system connects the JCS with the operations commands of Korea's Army, Navy and Air Force. It allows top military leaders a thorough understanding of the deployment of all weapons and troops of all three military branches at the same time.

Combat situations can be uploaded to the system in the form of photographs, videos and graphics. Reporting, commanding and intelligence-sharing can be done in real time. Military leaders in the situation room can make judgments on battlefield conditions as they evolve and immediately issue commands to subordinate units.

A JCS officer said the new system gives Korea's military operational capabilities a tremendous boost. "This will be very helpful to us when we take over wartime operational control from the U.S. in April 2012," the officer said.

Until now the Korean military has relied on the U.S. Forces Korea's system, called Global Command Control System-Korea, in emergencies and during joint exercises.

The only remaining task for the new command control system is to connect superior units -- the JCS and the operations commands of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force -- with corps headquarters and lower units. Authorities expect the system will be completed around 2011.

The new command control system is on the nearly the same high technological level as that of the USFK.