An Army unit recently ordered its officers with smartphones to delete applications considered pro-North Korea and critical of the South Korean government, the second such crackdown revealed in the past week, officials said Monday.According to officials, the commander of the Sixth Army Corps handed down the order to a subordinate unit on Jan. 17, with a list of four pro-North Korean apps and six apps critical of the Lee Myung-bak administration.The belated disclosure comes on the heels of a simil

Feb. 6, 2012

A U.S. army aircraft made an emergency landing on Friday at the U.S. military base of Camp Humphreys south of Seoul, but no injuries were reported, officials said.A U.S. Army RC-7 reconnaissance plane executed an emergency landing while on duty at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers sou

Feb. 3, 2012

   South Korea's presidential office on Thursday denied a lawmaker's claim that President Lee Myung-bak promised to purchase U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets when he held summit talks with President Barack Obama in October.   Rep. Song Young-sun made the claim in a radio interview Wed

Feb. 2, 2012

The Ministry of National Defense handed over the remains of a U.S. soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War to the U.S. on Thursday.The remains, found near Gaemi Hill in South Chungcheong Province in June last year, were identified through a joint Korea-U.S. investigation. The ministry said that its Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification and the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command have been working together after initial investigations showed that the remains were likely to have belong

Feb. 2, 2012

Senior defense officials from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan consider the current North Korean regime “stable” under its new leader Kim Jong-un, sources said Tuesday.Lim Kwan-bin, South Korea’s deputy defense minister; Peter Lavoy, the U.S. acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs; and Masanori Nishi, the head of defense policy at Japan’s defense ministry, began their two-day meeting on the South Korean island of Jeju on Monday, sources said. Their conference

Jan. 31, 2012

The defense ministry on Tuesday issued guidelines on the use of social media by soldiers, with an emphasis on protecting the military’s confidential information.The ministry said in a statement the increase in smartphone ownership and the subsequent rise in use of social networking services prompted the publication of the guidelines.“Our guidelines are designed to help troops in their use of SNS so that they won’t violate military security policies and adversely affect military discipline,” the

Jan. 31, 2012

Dozens of South Korean non-commissioned officers (NCOs) will receive leadership training at a U.S. army base in South Korea this spring, officials said Tuesday.The South’s Army said 65 NCOs will enter a four-week program starting in April at the Eighth U.S. Army Wightman Non-Commissioned Officers Academy. The academy is based in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul.According to South Korean officials, 50 NCOs will enter the academy’s “Warrior Leader Course,” and 15 more will join the “In

Jan. 31, 2012

Conventional and nuclear weapons pose continuing threats but the real arms race now on is in cyberspace, a new cyber defense report said.The report by Brussels think tank Security and Defense Agenda received input from Intel Corp. subsidiary McAfee technology security company and leading global secu

Jan. 31, 2012

The incorporation of the very-high altitude unmanned aerial vehicle Global Hawk into the South Korean military and the U.S. Forces Korea will be delayed due to the U.S. government’s decision to reduce defense spending. On Thursday the U.S. government announced that it will cut defense spending by about $500 billion over the next 10 years. As a result, the U.S. military’s plans to introduce advanced defense systems such as the Global Hawk were also modified. According to reports, the U.S. militar

Jan. 30, 2012

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The head of the U.S. Pacific Command said Friday that there will be no “significant” change in the scale and role of American troops in South Korea despite the Pentagon’s plan to cut budgets and slash the number of ground troops.Adm. Robert Willard, however, left open the possibility for some adjustment, based on annual consultations between the allies, given regional security conditions.The agreement to station roughly 30,000 soldiers in Korea is generally to face Nor

Jan. 29, 2012

South Korea and the U.S. will kick off their two major annual joint military drills later next month, officials of the allies announced Friday.They said the Key Resolve exercise will start on Feb. 27 and go on until March 9. Separately, the Foal Eagle exercise will be held from March 1 to April 30.The Key Resolve will involve about 200,000 South Korean troops, plus 2,100 U.S. troops. About 800 U.S. participants will come from outside South Korea, according to the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces

Jan. 27, 2012

South Korea’s Marine Corps on Thursday conducted the first live-fire drill at the islands near the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.The late North Korean leader died of heart failure on Dec. 17.Thursday’s exercise was conducted by Marine Corps units based on the West Sea islands including Baengnyeongdo and Yeonpyeongdo, and involved Vulcan anti-aircraft guns, 81 millimeter mortars and K-9 self-propelled artillery.According to the Marine Corps

Jan. 26, 2012

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Yonhap News) ― The chief South Korean and U.S. military officers met Tuesday at the Pentagon to sign a preliminary agreement for a new operational plan against potential North Korean provocations, sources and officials said.Army Gen. Jung Seung-jo, chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Washington earlier in the day after visiting a military command near Chicago, according to the sources in the U.S. capital.The U.S. Defense Department gave no immediate conf

Jan. 25, 2012