A publisher of a leading academic journal has rejected a request to retract a controversial paper, which claimed that “comfort women” were voluntary prostitutes, although historians have agreed that suggested evidence does not overturn historical consensus that Korean women were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, claimed that Korean women and Japanese brothels “included inde

Foreign Affairs Jan. 20, 2023

The United States should consider laying the groundwork with South Korea for a potential redeployment of its tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula to ramp up pressure on North Korea and clear up South Korean doubts over the credibility of the US commitment to extended deterrence, a group of US experts and former US senior officials said Thursday. But Seoul and Washington should consider bringing back US tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea as a last resort, the bipartisan, 14-membe

North Korea Jan. 20, 2023

A US Forces Korea service member has died from a fall in the southern county of Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, police and the provincial fire station headquarters said Wednesday. The 28-year-old woman was found dead at the parking lot of her residence at 3:03 a.m. on Wednesday in the town of Waegwan, where the US Army base Camp Carroll is located, according to local media reports. The US staff sergeant was transferred by fire authorities to a hospital, but died. South Korean police hav

Social Affairs Jan. 18, 2023

South Korea’s homegrown KF-21 fighter jet flew at supersonic speeds for the first time, leading the way for South Korea to become one of only a few countries that have indigenously produced and flown advanced supersonic fighter jets. A KF-21 Boramae fighter prototype took off for its first-ever supersonic test flight on Tuesday at 2:58 p.m. at the base of South Korea’s Air Force 3rd Training Wing in the city of Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, according to the Defense Acquisition

Defense Jan. 17, 2023

The South Korean and US defense chiefs will meet in Seoul before the end of next month to discuss ways to reinforce the alliance’s deterrence and readiness against escalating North Korean threats and enhance trilateral security cooperation with the US and Japan. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is likely to visit Seoul before the allies stage a tabletop exercise, or TTX, to simulate North Korean nuclear attacks on the Korean Peninsula, in the US in February, South Korean government off

Defense Jan. 17, 2023

  The arms procurement agencies of South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have signed a deal to strategically and substantially enhance defense industry cooperation, which has paved the way for South Korean defense contractors to expand their export horizons to the UAE. South Korean Minister of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Eom Dong-hwan, and Secretary General of the UAE’s Tawazun Council, Tareq Abdulraheem Al Hosani, signed a memorandum of understanding on “

Defense Jan. 16, 2023

Eyes are riveted on whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will convey another key message on the country’s nuclear buildup and hard-line foreign policy at a parliamentary meeting scheduled to be held this week. But experts have said the focus of the meeting is to discuss key domestic issues, including annual economic plans and the state budget, as well as preparations for nationwide events marking key anniversaries this year. North Korea’s legislative body, the Supreme People&rsquo

North Korea Jan. 15, 2023

South Korea and the United States have been in discussion over how to modernize the US-led United Nations Command, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday, adding that it aimed to complete the discussion and publicly announce the outcome this year. Seoul took the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korea alliance as an opportunity to propose comprehensive talks on the issue, senior Defense Ministry officials confirmed during a closed-door briefing on condition of anonymity. They added t

Defense Jan. 11, 2023

North Korea will never compromise or concede on the fundamental interests and sovereignty of the country despite any challenges, North Korean state media said Tuesday, legitimizing the ruling party’s intransigence and determination to stand against foreign powers. In an article, the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, echoed the country’s principle of strength-for-strength and head-on confrontation that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reaffirmed at th

North Korea Jan. 10, 2023

South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Monday said that the military’s response to the cross-border infiltration by North Korean drones did not breach the armistice agreement, stressing that the countermeasure was essential to its right of self-defense enshrined in the UN Charter. The ministry’s argument counters that of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which said that the South Korean military violated the Korean Armistice Agreement by flying its reconnaissance drones

Defense Jan. 9, 2023

The South Korean military on Friday denied claims that it sought to cover up the entrance of an uncrewed North Korean aerial vehicle into a no-fly zone around the presidential office in Seoul, as its belated confirmation of the penetration has drawn blistering criticism from the main opposition party. The rebuttal came a day after South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the interim outcome of its ongoing investigation into the intrusion of five North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles,

Defense Jan. 6, 2023

The South Korean military on Thursday belatedly confirmed an uncrewed North Korean aerial vehicle flew over no-fly zones designated around the presidential office and residence in central Seoul, walking back on earlier remarks that it did not do so. The Joint Chiefs of Staff statement was made during a closed-door briefing on the interim outcomes of its ongoing investigation on the intrusion of five uncrewed air vehicles, or UAVs, into South Korean airspace on Dec. 26 last year. They flew over t

North Korea Jan. 5, 2023

South Korea and the United States said Tuesday they had been discussing the joint operation of US nuclear assets to enhance the alliance’s capabilities to counter North Korean threats, clarifying that an option to stage nuclear exercises was off the table. The presidential office in Seoul confirmed hours after US President Joe Biden flatly denied a White House reporter question whether he was “discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea right now.”  Bu

Defense Jan. 3, 2023

The South Korean military on Monday belatedly apologized for triggering public alarm last week by test-launching a solid-fuel space launch vehicle unannounced and pledged to find ways to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents. The Defense Ministry shared the details of the test flight that was conducted by the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD) on Friday after sunset in waters off the western coast to verify the performance of a homegrown solid-fuel space rocket. The ministry und

North Korea Jan. 2, 2023

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged the country to exponentially increase its nuclear arsenal and mass-produce tactical nuclear weapons able to strike within South Korean territory, labeling South Korea as an “undoubted enemy” at a key party meeting, North Korean state media reported Sunday. In response to Kim’s explicit threat, the South Korean military publicly warned that any nuclear attack by North Korea would spell the end of the Kim Jong-un regime. Defense Minister Le

North Korea Jan. 1, 2023