North Korea launched a spy satellite on Tuesday night, around three months after its unsuccessful second attempt to place a domestically developed surveillance satellite into orbit in August. It is not yet clear if the launch was successful. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that "what North Korea claimed to be a military reconnaissance satellite" was launched at around 10:43 p.m. southward from the Tongchang-ri area of North Pyongan Province. The launch vehicle then p

Defense Nov. 21, 2023

North Korea conducted the first ground tests of solid-fuel engines for a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile last week and this week in the run-up to the country's newly-designated Missile Industry Day, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday. The country's state media reported "highly satisfactory results" from the inaugural ground jet tests conducted on Nov. 11 for the first-stage engine and on Tuesday for the second-stage engine. The two gr

Defense Nov. 15, 2023

More than 70 years have passed since the United Nations Command was forged to assist South Korea in repelling North Korea's invasion in 1950. The collective security establishment within the UN serves as the backbone of the security of the Korean Peninsula. But the time has come to discuss ways to renew its mission, which continues today amid rapidly changing security dynamics, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry, which hosted the inaugural defense ministerial meeting of UNC memb

Defense Nov. 14, 2023

The 17 member states of the United Nations Command on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to collective action in the event of any hostile actions or armed attacks by North Korea on the Korean Peninsula. The UNC member states, who once united under the one UN flag to furnish forces and assistance for South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, gathered again in Seoul for the recommitment. The assembly on Tuesday marked the first-ever defense ministerial meeting between South Korea and the UNC mem

Defense Nov. 14, 2023

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States on Monday unveiled an updated security strategy, the first in a decade, specifically designed to counter the growing threats emanating from North Korean nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. South Korea's newly appointed Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the completion of revisions to the Tailored Deterrence Strategy, a strategic guideline tailored to threats posed by North K

Defense Nov. 13, 2023

The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Sunday agreed to stage pre-planned trilateral military exercises from next January with a multi-year framework, marking a significant stride in enhancing trilateral security cooperation in the face of escalating North Korean threats. The three-way meeting was held for the first time in Seoul since South Korea's new Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and Japan's Defense Minister Minoru Kihara assumed office in October and September, res

Defense Nov. 12, 2023

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States are set to convene in Seoul to discuss critical alliance matters, encompassing escalating North Korean threats and extended deterrence, as well as their joint efforts to broaden the horizons of their military partnership into domains such as defense science and technology or the arms industry. South Korea's new Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will hold the 55th Security Consultative Meeting, an annua

Defense Nov. 9, 2023

North Korea's top foreign policy imperative continues to revolve around the pursuit of normalized relations with the United States. The strategic goal is seen as the linchpin to unlocking the potential for lifting economic sanctions while retaining its nuclear arsenal, the president of the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification said. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in unambiguous pronouncements, has characterized the prevailing global geopolitical landscape as a "new Co

North Korea Nov. 8, 2023

South Korea, the United States and Japan have agreed to hold a meeting of defense chiefs to discuss coordinating responses in the face of escalating missile and nuclear threats posed by North Korea, officials at South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday. The defense ministerial meeting has been planned to coincide with the visit of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Seoul for the Security Consultative Meeting, an annual bilateral defense discussion with South Korea, schedu

North Korea Nov. 8, 2023

The large-scale surprise attack by Hamas on Israel a month ago has sparked profound concerns about South Korea's readiness to confront hypothetical asymmetric warfare scenarios initiated by North Korea. The Hamas attack occurred precisely 50 years and one day after the surprise offensive launched by Egyptian and Syrian forces against Israel in 1973, suggesting that the Palestinian group took advantage of a moment when Israel was caught off guard. This historical context holds significant implica

Defense Nov. 6, 2023

In a high-stakes race, South and North Korea are vying for success in launching their first homegrown military spy satellites, backed respectively by the United States and Russia, as a pivotal initiative aimed at enhancing their military capabilities. The South Korean military is set to launch its domestically-developed reconnaissance satellite on Nov. 30 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, South Korea’s new Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Friday during his meeting with

Defense Nov. 5, 2023

The South Korean military on Thursday said it has detected indications that North Korea has delivered short-range ballistic missiles, in addition to artillery shells and rockets, to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The South Korean military disclosed that North Korea is suspected of supplying a variety of weapons and equipment to Russia by holding a closed-door briefing on arms trade and military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, marking the first such instance since the outbr

Defense Nov. 2, 2023

North Korea has formally shuttered its embassy in Spain, marking its first such confirmed instance in Europe. The closure comes in the wake of North Korea's recent shutdowns of two of its diplomatic missions in Africa, which had reportedly been a source of illicitly generated hard currency for the Kim Jong-un regime. The North Korean Embassy in Madrid informed its closure to the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain on Oct. 26, according to a diplomatic document released later on the part

North Korea Nov. 1, 2023

The United States should reconsider its policy of strategic ambiguity and shift toward one of strategic clarity in response to North Korea's escalating nuclear threats, one South Korean think tank said in a joint report with a US think tank in a press briefing Monday. The Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the RAND Corporation, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, emphasized what they say is the need for the two allies to adapt their current nuclear policies and measure

Defense Oct. 30, 2023

A group of unidentified North Koreans crossed the inter-Korean maritime border in a boat in the East Sea on Tuesday morning, marking the first case since 2019. The four North Koreans traveled across the inter-Korean border in a small wooden vessel and initially expressed their intent to defect to South Korea when they were discovered by South Korea's Coast Guard, government sources told The Korea Herald. The initial assessment by the South Korean government suggests that the four individual

North Korea Oct. 24, 2023