‘Expensive weapons purchases to burden next government’

By Shin Hyon-heeThe Park Geun-hye government is pushing to bring in advanced, pricey military assets without a budget commensurate with the size of the projects, heaping a financial burden of billions of dollars onto its successor, a report said Monday.After analyzing 22 weapons acquisition programs each worth 500 billion won ($415 million) or more, Rep. Baek Kun-ki of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy said the incumbent administration is expected to spend some 13.6 trillion won for defens

Sept. 7, 2015

S. Korea, U.S. launch joint 3-day drill against bio threats

South Korea and the United States launched a joint anti-biological exercise on Monday to step up their combined response to potential biological attacks, the Ministry of National Defense said.The three-day Able Response 15 exercise will involve the defense departments of the allies as well as the local health ministry and dozens of other institutions, according to the ministry. "The latest South Korea-U.S. biological defense exercise will examine and enhance the countries' combined response syst

Sept. 7, 2015

S. Korea, U.S. to hold joint bio-defense drill next week

South Korea and the United States plan to conduct a joint drill next week on countering possible biological attacks on the Korean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.  The exercise, titled "Able Response 15," will take place from Monday to Wednesday at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses to increase preparedness for various biological threats, including disease and terrorism, according to the ministry.  The annual drill, the fifth of its kind, will bring together some 20

Sept. 3, 2015

Court rules against release of U.S. forces crime data

An appeals court ruled Tuesday that the government does not have to unveil the information of cases involving U.S. soldiers if it has relinquished its right to exercise jurisdiction over them under the South Korea-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, upending the original judgment. Under SOFA, which governs the legal status of some 28,500 U.S. troops stationed across the southern part of the peninsula, South Korea can primarily invoke judicial power when a serviceman is implicated in crimes, except

Sept. 1, 2015

S. Korea resumes search for remains of war dead

South Korea's military launched another round of massive excavation work Monday in search of remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.  More than 40,000 troops from 14 units will be mobilized for the months-long project, a team in charge of the operation at the Defense Ministry said.  They will excavate two dozen sites across the country including the Suribong area in Yanggu, Gangwon Province. Nicknamed "Bloody Ridge Line," it was a Korean War battlefield where around 20,000 Sout

Aug. 31, 2015

S. Korea, U.S. flaunt combined artillery power in

South Korea and the United States performed a joint war simulation on Friday involving live-fire bombings and flights of combat jets in the latest show of joint force against North Korea.The allies mobilized the biggest-ever number of troops, artillery pieces and military vehicles for this year's Integrated Firepower Exercise 2015, marking the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule in 1945. Under the scenarios of a local attack and all-out aggression by North Korea, th

Aug. 28, 2015

War plan upgrade reflects N.K. WMD threats, U.S. military shifts

The new wartime contingency plan of South Korea and the U.S. is presumed to address the growing concerns over North Korea’s evolving weapons of mass destruction and likely to reflect changes in the U.S. force structure and strategy, analysts said Thursday.Seoul and Washington reportedly signed the so-called Operations Plan 5015 in June to replace OPLAN 5027, the core wartime plan that laid out detailed procedures for the allied militaries to handle a full-blown war initiated by North Korea’s agg

Aug. 27, 2015

New war plan to pave way for preemptive strike on N.K.

South Korea and the U.S. have forged an upgraded operational plan that will pave the way for a preemptive strike such as in a contingency case involving the use of weapons of mass destruction, military sources said Thursday. The OPLAN 5015 was formulated last June to replace OPLAN 5027 by the chairmen of the two countries’ Joint Chiefs of Staff. The allies have, since 1974, been assessing their joint defense plan every year, primarily to devise better responses to North Korea’s military threats.

Aug. 27, 2015

S. Korea, U.S. sign upgraded war plan focused on dismantling N. Korean WMDs

South Korea and the United States have signed an upgraded operational plan that puts a fresh focus on removing North Korea's weapons of mass destruction, a military official said Thursday.In June, the allies signed OPLAN 2015, which will be put into action in case a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, according to the official."The militaries of both countries drew up OPLAN 2015, which replaces OPLAN 5027, with their Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmen signing it in June," the official noted. For

Aug. 27, 2015

S. Korea to hike military budget to boost readiness

South Korea will sharply increase its military budget for 2016 to enhance the readiness of its armed forces against North Korean threats, the top economic policymaker said Thursday.In a meeting with lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party in Seoul, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said the latest standoff with North Korea highlights the need to strengthen the combat readiness of troops near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, as well as to cope with the threat posed by Pyongyan

Aug. 27, 2015

Soldier wounded by S. Korean land mine in DMZ

One staff sergeant has sustained a leg injury after a South Korean land mine exploded in the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.The mine exploded in the DMZ in the eastern border town of Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, around noon on Sunday as the staff sergeant stepped on it while on a patrol mission with fellow soldiers, the JCS said, without disclosing the identity of the wounded soldier.He fractured his left heel, which requires two or three month

Aug. 26, 2015

S. Korean military relaxes top-level defense posture at border

The South Korean military Wednesday relaxed its highest-level combat readiness posture it had maintained at the border due to heightened tensions with North Korea, a military source said."The maximum alert order that had come down to the front-line military units is being downgraded," the source said.The front-line soldiers, however, will remain in a tighter readiness posture than normal in consideration of the on-going Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercise with the U.S., the source not

Aug. 26, 2015

S. Korea to keep military readiness: Defense Ministry

South Korea said Tuesday it will continue maintaining its military readiness until North Korea normalizes its front-line defense level as it takes time for the North to pull back its forward-deployed troops.  Earlier Tuesday, after four days of intensive inter-Korean talks, North Korea agreed to lift its quasi-war state of its armed forces starting at noon in return for the South's stoppage of the anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the border."Since the North has agreed to withdraw the s

Aug. 25, 2015

USFK helicopter crash-lands after tail rotor failure

A U.S. Army helicopter crash-landed here Monday, due to a failure in the tail rotor, but the accident involved no major casualties, authorities said.A helicopter for the 24th Division of the U.S. Army made an emergency landing on a hillside in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, at around 11:40 a.m. with the two pilots showing no outward sign of injury.When the rescue team arrived, the pilots, both of whom work for the U.S. Army, were waiting outside the aircraft for the rescue helicopter from U.S

Aug. 24, 2015

S. Korea, U.S. mulling timing of B-52 strategic bomber deployment to Korea

South Korea and the United States appear to be in discussion over the timing of a U.S. B-52 strategic bomber and a nuclear-armed submarine's deployment to South Korea, the Defense Ministry said Monday."Keeping close tabs on the crisis situation on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea and the U.S. are flexibly reviewing the timing of the deployment of strategic U.S. military assets,"Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a regular briefing.He did not pinpoint the kind of U.S. assets under c

Aug. 24, 2015