A Seoul-based lab tested 72 American troops positive for COVID-19, but the US military in Korea said they belonged to soldiers stationed elsewhere, and not here, a local report said Sunday. 　 A US hospital at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, where the US military is headquartered, sent clinical specimens to the lab, which shared the results with the city in Gyeonggi Province, as it was bound by law to do so. The city pressed the US military for more details, but it came to confirm only the fact t

Defense April 5, 2020

Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min will take part in a three-week basic training for mandatory military service required by South Korea, sources familiar with that matter said Thursday. He is exempt from conscription but will receive the training at a Marine Corps camp on Jeju Island from April 20. All able-bodied South Korean men must serve active duty for at least 18 months, but athletes who win gold at the Asian Games or a medal of any color at the Olympics can complete a basic train

Soccer April 2, 2020

Nearly half of Koreans working at the US military in Korea went on indefinite, unpaid leave Wednesday, taken hostage by drawn-out negotiations between Korea and the US on how to share costs for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops here. “Today, approximately half of the USFK Korean national employee workforce has been furloughed due to a lapse in the Special Measures Agreement,” Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of the US military in Korea, said, referring to the cost-sharing deal the a

Defense April 1, 2020

North Korea could have manipulated images of its latest rocket launches, a German rocket expert told Voice of America. Markus Schiller, who specializes in mechanical and aerospace engineering, suspected the North edited some of the launch pictures made public. “If you measure the dimensions of the missile which just seems to have left the launch tube, the missile is too large, diameter is too big and the length is too long to fit into that launch tube,” he said. North Korea launc

North Korea March 31, 2020

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday he was hopeful nuclear talks between the US and North Korea would resume, just hours after the North, which repeated missiles tests this month, threatened to repay pains the US had caused its people. “We hope to sit with the North Korean leadership again and discuss how to bring about a brighter future for its people,” he said. The top US diplomat said he remembered well when President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un exchanged pro

North Korea March 31, 2020

The two short-range projectiles North Korea fired into the East Sea on Sunday were super-large rockets, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said Monday, calling the test a “success." Unlike previous launches, leader Kim Jong-un was reportedly not there to guide the latest test. This was the North’s fourth weapons test this year, all in March. Pyongyang tested super-large rockets March 2 and 9 and ballistic missiles March 21 in an unprecedented flurry of launches that S

North Korea March 30, 2020

North Korea fired what appeared to be two ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Sunday morning, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, urging the regime to halt the “inappropriate” military act amid the coronavirus pandemic. It was the North’s fourth weapons test this year, all in March. 　 The missiles flew approximately 230 kilometers from Wonsan on the North’s eastern coast and reached a peak altitude of 30 kilometers. South Korea’s key security offici

North Korea March 29, 2020

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres advised loosening sanctions on some countries so that they can better counter the coronavirus outbreak, during a teleconference with G-20 countries Thursday. “I also appeal for the waiving of sanctions that can undermine countries’ capacity to respond to the pandemic,” he said. The UN chief repeated that countries under sanctions should be able to import key medical supplies and receive relief goods in their efforts to combat COVID-19. A

North Korea March 27, 2020

United States Forces Korea said Friday that a soldier and a contract worker at Camp Humphreys, its headquarters in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing its tally to 12. Korea hosts 28,500 US troops here. Of the 12 patients, two were soldiers -- one at Camp Humphreys, the other at Camp Carroll near Daegu -- and the rest were either the service members’ family or contract employees working for the US military. Two days ago, USFK declared a public healt

Defense March 27, 2020

A pair of missiles North Korea fired Saturday had a payload capacity sufficient to carry nuclear warheads, 38 North said Wednesday. The Washington-based website monitors North Korea. The firings on March 21 marked Pyongyang’s third weapons test this year, following two rounds in the same month. The missiles were the North’s variant of the US surface-to-surface missile ATACMS. The website said it suspected that the North Korean missiles had payload compartments that were 700-750 mi

North Korea March 26, 2020

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating rose to its highest level in more than 16 months, owing to the government’s COVID-19 response, local pollster Realmeter said Thursday. The country’s aggressive tracing and testing early in the pandemic has helped it to avoid drastic lockdowns. According to the poll, conducted between Monday and Wednesday, Moon’s approval rating stood at 52.5 percent, up 3.2 percentage points from the previous week. It was the highest since the

Politics March 26, 2020

Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, said Tuesday that North Korea needs UN sanctions relief because its health care system lacks the resources to counter the coronavirus. “Obstacles to the import of vital medical supplies, including over-compliance with sanctions by banks, will create long-lasting harm to vulnerable communities,” she said. She was implying UN sanctions could hamper Pyongyang’s coronavirus response. Bachelet said the North Korean public

North Korea March 25, 2020

North Korea’s foreign currency income looks set to shrink this year, as the coronavirus halts Chinese tourism, one of the few remaining legitimate sources of hard currency for the cash-strapped regime, a Seoul-based think tank said in its latest report. Pyongyang, which closed its borders with Beijing to contain COVID-19, has long relied on tens of thousands of its people working in China, Russia and elsewhere to send dollars back home, but many workers have been sent back because of UN s

North Korea March 24, 2020

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, seems to have risen above her leadership title as deputy chief of Pyongyang’s propaganda affairs to Kim Jong-un’s personal messenger, aggressively weighing in on US relations and the inter-Korean agenda. In her second known official statement, released Sunday, she disclosed that US President Donald Trump had sent Kim Jong-un a letter, saying Washington was ready to expand cooperation with Pyongyang to combat the cor

North Korea March 22, 2020

The two short-range projectiles North Korea fired into the East Sea on Saturday were ballistic missiles and the test was overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said Sunday, adding the “strategic and guided weapons” would soon be operational. The missiles flew approximately 410 kilometers and reached a peak altitude of 50 kilometers from Sonchon, along the North’s western coast. In its third weapons launch this month, the North was suspect

North Korea March 22, 2020