Military to resume border area artillery drills following suspension of pact with N. Korea

South Korea is set to restart artillery drills near the Military Demarcation Line and the northwestern border islands as early as this month, military sources said Wednesday, after the country effectively suspended a 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact. On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol endorsed a motion calling for the full suspension of the Comprehensive Military Agreement in response to the North's trash-carrying balloon campaign and GPS jamming attacks in recent days. The move en

June 5, 2024

South Korea forms satellite cyber security body

South Korean spy agency said Tuesday it was forming a consultative body of concerned ministries and other government agencies to enhance satellite cyber security. The consultative body led by the National Intelligence Service is aimed at protecting satellites throughout their lifespan from their design to operation. The NIS explained that the body was created against amid emerging domestic and international space cyber threats, citing the recent cyber attack against the Korea Satellite Operation

June 4, 2024

South Korea suspends pact, resumes border military activities

South Korea voted in a Cabinet meeting to suspend the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement on Tuesday after a week of North Korea’s unceasing provocations ranging from attempting to launch another spy satellite to sending trash balloons. The Cabinet decision was approved by President Yoon Suk Yeol the same day, making the pact -- reached on September 19, 2018, to minimize front-line tensions -- lose effect entirely for the time being. South Korea earlier halted parts of the pact to

June 4, 2024

Seoul vows strong action against NK trash balloons

North Korea sent another batch of balloons carrying filth and propaganda to South Korea over the weekend, prompting a stern reaction from the South Korean government, which vowed Sunday to take “unendurable” action. “Dispatching of trash balloons and jamming GPS are despicable and irrational acts of provocation that could not have been imagined by a normal country,” National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said after presiding over a National Security Council meeting called

June 2, 2024

NSC expected to discuss resuming loudspeaker campaign over North's launch of trash-carrying balloons

The presidential National Security Council is expected to discuss a plan to resume propaganda campaigns via loudspeakers across the border with North Korea, in response to the North's launch of some 600 balloons carrying trash to the South, a source close to the matter said Sunday. The NSC meeting will be held Sunday afternoon and presided over by National Security Adviser Jang Ho-jin, according to the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Earlier in the day, South Korea's military said N

June 2, 2024

South Korea, Japan defense chiefs agree to put past behind them at Singapore meeting

SINGAPORE -- South Korea’s Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik and Japan’s Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara agreed to look to the future in a bilateral meeting held at the Asia Security Summit or the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. At the meeting that lasted for about half an hour, the two ministers agreed to put the maritime row that had frustrated defense negotiations between the countries for the last five years, and pursue reconciliation. In December 2018, Japan accused

June 1, 2024

N. Korea sends some 90 balloons carrying trash to S. Korea: Seoul's military

North Korea sent around 90 balloons carrying trash to South Korea on Saturday, Seoul's military said, after it launched hundreds of similar balloons across the inter-Korean border earlier this week. As of 11 p.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected around 90 balloons that floated across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas and fell in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The North appears to have started sending the balloons at around 8 p.m., with the fallen balloons

June 1, 2024

Seoul defense chief thanks Congress for bill keeping US troops in South Korea

SINGAPORE -- Seoul’s Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik on Saturday credited the bipartisan support from the US Congress for its role in protecting the US troop presence in South Korea. Shin held a closed-door meeting with the US House of Representatives delegation comprising Reps. Young Kim, Michael McCaul, Gregory Meeks, Joe Wilson and Joe Courtney at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit on this day, according to the minister’s office. The South Korean defense minister was quoted

June 1, 2024

Seoul defense chief accuses Russia of using North Korean weapons in Ukraine attack

SINGAPORE -- South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Saturday growing evidence pointed to Russia getting weapons from North Korea to attack Ukraine and aiding the Kim Jong-un regime’s military program. “Today we see more evidence that the weapons used by Russia to attack Ukraine were illegally imported from North Korea,” the South Korean minister of national defense said in his remarks delivered at the plenary session of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Russia, des

June 1, 2024

Talks on South Korea-Japan defense meeting in Singapore enter final stage

SINGAPORE -- South Korea and Japan are in the final stages of arranging a bilateral defense ministers dialogue in Singapore, according to Seoul military sources on Friday. South Korea’s Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik will likely meet his Japanese counterpart Minoru Kihara on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, according to officials. If it proceeds, the bilateral meeting would precede a trilateral meeting of South Korea,

May 31, 2024

Defense chief to meet with US, Japanese counterparts in Singapore

Shin Won-sik, South Korea’s Minister of National Defense, will attend this year’s Asia Security Summit in Singapore — also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue — where he is scheduled to meet with his counterparts from the US, Japan and other key partner countries. The annual summit hosted by the UK think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies gathers leaders and experts in defense and diplomacy. Held since 2002, this year’s summit marks the 21st anniversary

May 30, 2024

US senator floats redeployment of tactical nuclear arms to Korea to strengthen deterrence

A ranking member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday proposed the idea of redeploying US tactical nuclear arms to South Korea to beef up deterrence, noting the absence of any immediate diplomatic solution to North Korea's nuclear quandary. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) made the proposal in a report, titled "21st Century Peace Through Strength: A Generational Investment in the US Military," in which he stressed Pyongyang continues to "outpace expectations"

May 30, 2024

S. Korea, US stage joint air drills amid tension over failed NK satellite launch

South Korean and US military aircraft have staged regular combined live-fire drills to strengthen readiness against North Korean threats, Seoul's Air Force said Tuesday, amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's failed satellite launch. More than 90 aircraft, including the South's F-35A stealth fighters and the US A-10 attack aircraft, have been mobilized for the four-day exercise that began Monday over waters off South Korea's west coast, according to the Air Force. The exer

May 28, 2024

South Korea confirms North Korea’s latest spy satellite launch failed

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a projectile believed to be a North Korean spy satellite was fired toward the west of the Korean Peninsula and landed in the sea after exploding midair late Monday. The projectile, which the JCS identified as “North Korea’s so-called military reconnaissance satellite,” was fired from the North Pyongan Province in a southwesterly direction at around 10:44 p.m. The JCS said some debris from the satellite’s explosion could be ob

May 28, 2024

South Korea flies fighters near border over North Korean spy satellite alarm

South Korea on Monday staged an air exercise near the inter-Korean border in response to an announcement from North Korea that it would launch a military reconnaissance satellite within the next seven days. According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the drills involving some 20 fighter jets -- including F-15Ks, KF-16s and the stealth F-35As -- were carried out in the skies south of the no-fly zone from around 1 p.m. Col. Lee Sung-jun, the South Korean JCS spokesperson, said in a pre

May 27, 2024

S. Korea completes development of L-SAM defense system

South Korea has completed development of the homegrown Long-range Surface-to-Air Missile (L-SAM) system, the state arms procurement agency said Saturday, marking a major step in efforts to bolster the military's air defense capabilities. The L-SAM, which is designed to shoot down incoming targets at altitudes of 50-60 kilometers, was recently assessed as combat-suitable as it met the military's technical requirements, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

May 25, 2024

S. Korea, US hold 2nd round of talks on defense cost sharing

South Korea and the United States held a new round of negotiations Tuesday on sharing the costs for stationing American troops here. The three-day talks through Thursday are aimed at determining how much Seoul should shoulder for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea, starting in 2026. The talks are led by Lee Tae-woo, South Korea's chief negotiator from the foreign ministry, and his US counterpart, Linda Specht from the State Department. Tuesday's negotiations took place at

May 21, 2024

1 dead, 1 wounded in grenade explosion during Army boot camp training

A hand grenade explosion killed one recruit and severely wounded a noncommissioned officer during a training session held at an Army boot camp in the administrative city of Sejong, officials said Tuesday. “Around 9:50 a.m. on Tuesday, an accident involving a hand grenade explosion occurred during grenade throwing training at (the Army's 32nd Infantry Division) in South Chungcheong Province,” the Republic of Korea Army said in a statement released via text message to reporters. &

May 21, 2024

S. Korea, US to hold 2nd round of talks on defense cost sharing

South Korea and the United States began a new round of negotiations Tuesday on sharing the costs for stationing American troops here. The three-day talks through Thursday are aimed at determining how much Seoul should shoulder for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea, starting in 2026. The talks were led by Lee Tae-woo, South Korea's chief negotiator from the foreign ministry, and his US counterpart, Linda Specht from the State Department. The first round of the talks took place

May 21, 2024

South Korean army chief meets with ally counterparts in US trip

The South Korean army said Monday its chief of staff Gen. Park An-su met with his US, Japanese and Australian counterparts during his eight-day trip to the US, for talks on North Korea deterrence. At the annual Land Forces Pacific Symposium in Hawaii on May 14-16, Park participated in a panel discussion alongside the commanding general of the US Army Pacific Gen. Charles Flynn, Gen. Yasunori Morishita of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and Lt. Gen. Simon Stuart of the Army Australia. The

May 20, 2024