The South Korean Navy on Thursday kicked off a three-day maritime exercise to defend the western sea border from possible North Korean provocations, the military said.The exercise will be conducted in a bid to deter North Korean patrol vessels from crossing the western maritime border, widely known as the Northern Limit Line, it said. The two Koreas fought several bloody sea battles along the NLL in 1999, 2002 and 2009.Pyongyang does not acknowledge the de facto demarcation line drawn unilateral

June 16, 2016

The recently approved Senate defense budget bill for next year has failed to include a proposed amendment calling for deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system in South Korea, a congressional source said Wednesday.The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 in a 85-13 vote Tuesday, authorizing $602 billion in defense spending. The legislation will later be combined with a House version before being sent to President Barack Obama.Late last month, Sen. C

June 16, 2016

The top diplomats of South Korea and Russia barely discussed the controversial issue of deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil during their talks earlier this week, a Seoul official said.The senior official told South Korean reporters during a luncheon in St. Petersburg on Tuesday that the topic of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system was raised in the meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, but on

June 16, 2016

SEOUL/PARIS (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian plan to delve into how they could jointly act to tighten the screws on a defiant North Korea as well as ways to boost bilateral collaboration when they meet for talks on Wednesday, the defense ministry said.The defense ministers are scheduled to hold a meeting from 4:30 p.m. in Paris at the headquarters of the French defense ministry, the first full-length defense ministers' talks bet

June 15, 2016

The South Korean Army plans to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the near future to deliver defense supplies to troops around the country, the military said Wednesday.The Army conducted a system demonstration of a delivery drone during a meeting held earlier in the day to evaluate the feasibility of the UAVs to ferry supplies, it said in a statement. The tested drone handily airlifted a 15 kilogram package to a designated spot during the demonstration, according to the statement."In comp

June 15, 2016

South Korea's foreign minister said he barely discussed the controversial issue of deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil during talks with his Russian counterpart earlier this week.Yun Byung-se told South Korean reporters and foreign ministry officials during a luncheon in St. Petersburg on Tuesday that the topic of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system was raised in his meeting with Sergey Lavrov but only in passing."(The Russian side) mentioned a confrontati

June 15, 2016

South Korea's Defense Minister Han Min-koo departed for France for a three-day visit to the European country where he plans to hold talks on North Korea and ways to expand bilateral defense cooperation measures, the ministry said Tuesday.During the visit, Han will meet with France's Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday.Han's visit to France, that runs through Thursday, comes at the invitation of Paris which expressed a wish to discuss "practical" measures to further strengthen bilate

June 14, 2016

South Korean defense manufacturers displayed locally made weapons such as the K-9 self-propelled guns at the world's largest defense exhibition underway in Paris, company officials said Tuesday.The biennial Eurosatory defense expo that kicked off on Monday for a five-day run brings together an estimated 1,600 defense-related suppliers from some 70 countries.A total of 21 South Korean defense manufacturers including Hanwha Techwin Corp. and Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) are present at Eur

June 14, 2016

The South Korean government said Tuesday it has begun a full-fledged campaign to help local cybersecurity startups operate in the United States.The Korea Innovation Center in Washington D.C. has agreed to team up with the MACH37 Cyber Accelerator, a Virginia-based agency specializing in supporting the launch of cybersecurity startups, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.The KIC is the ministry's startup assistance arm. It has other foreign offices in Silicon Valley and

June 14, 2016

The U.S. THAAD system is a powerful anti-missile tool, but wouldn't be effective in defending against a North Korean nuclear attack coming as part of a barrage of conventional warheads, a U.S. analyst said Monday.Garth McLennan, who has closely followed American foreign and security policy, made the point in an article contributed to the website 38 North, forecasting that THAAD's deployment to South Korea would lead to the North stepping up its production of ballistic missiles.South Korea alread

June 14, 2016

South Korean police said Monday North Korea had penetrated into the internal networks of the affiliates of two local conglomerates and stole and subsequently deleted some 42,000 documents, including some containing military information.According to the National Police Agency (NPA), in July 2014 the North started hacking the networks of South Korean telecoms giant SK Group and the Hanjin Group which has the country's top flag carrier Korean Air Lines Co. under its wing. Korean Air makes parts for

June 13, 2016

South Korea received its first batch of Wildcat choppers made by British helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland on Monday with the Navy aiming to deploy them to frontline units by the middle of next year.The four AW159 Wildcat combat helicopters will be deployed after undergoing a series of tests on functions, according to the Navy. Seoul plans to take delivery of four more Wildcats at the end of this year.The chopper, known to be equipped with an active electronically scanned array radar, is ca

June 13, 2016

South Korea spends relatively less than other countries facing similar security situations in terms of its defense budget to gross domestic product ratio, data showed Monday, as the government is making a case for more money to be allocated to cope with heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. According to the data compiled by the defense ministry for a promotional magazine, South Korea spent $36.4 billion last year, which was equal to 2.42 percent of its annual GDP. The ratio stayed relativ

June 13, 2016