A trilateral scheme has kicked off for sharing data on North Korean missiles in real time among the defense chiefs of South Korea, Japan and the US. The Ministry of National Defense in Seoul said Tuesday its prelaunch inspections have found the missile data-sharing scheme to be “completely ready for operations” and currently “operating smoothly.” The Defense Ministry said the scheme would allow the three allies to detect North Korea’s missiles and share related info

Defense Dec. 19, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday asked his national security team for an “instant and overpowering response to any North Korean provocations” following the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by Pyongyang earlier in the day, which raised military tensions on the peninsula. The North’s fifth ICBM launch of the year was fired into the sea off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Monday morning, as previously predicted by a senior Seoul official last week. In a N

Defense Dec. 18, 2023

South Korea and the US held another round of talks on nuclear deterrence in Washington DC on Friday, as part of US President Joe Biden’s commitment to step up protection from North Korea. According to a Seoul official, both sides agreed to complete guidelines on joint nuclear defense strategy by mid-2024 -- a timeline that falls before the US presidential election. South Korea’s principal deputy national security adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, told reporters that Seoul and Washington have dec

Defense Dec. 17, 2023

North Korea hosted a Russian governor of a far-east border region on Tuesday for talks on boosting economic ties, according to Pyongyang’s official state news agency. The official Korea Central News Agency said in a report Wednesday that North Korea’s foreign economic affairs official Yun Jong-ho met with Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Russia’s Primorsky, to discuss “elevating economic cooperation between regions of the two countries to a higher level.” The state-

North Korea Dec. 13, 2023

The shift in power in Poland is stoking worries in South Korea over its possible toll on an arms export deal to the European country reached last year. Donald Tusk, a former European Union leader, was chosen as Poland’s prime minister for a second time in a parliamentary vote Monday, ending eight years of the nationalist conservative administration’s rule. With the change of the administration, the Polish Parliament’s Speaker Szymon Holwnia has said that agreements signed by th

Politics Dec. 12, 2023

A United States Forces Korea F-16 Fighting Falcon on Monday morning crashed near Gunsan, a North Jeolla Province city 178 kilometers south of Seoul, during routine training, according to the air base there. Kunsan Air Base, home to the 8th Fighter Wing, said in a release that the fighter jet crashed into the sea off the west coast of South Korea at around 8:43 a.m. The pilot was rescued by the Republic of Korea Maritime Forces after evacuating the aircraft, the release said. He is in a stable co

Defense Dec. 11, 2023

South Korea’s National Assembly on Friday voted to discard a set of bills aimed at giving the state broadcasting regulator more power in choosing heads of public broadcasters. The bills were vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol and sent back to the Assembly for a revote. They were initially proposed by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which controls the parliamentary majority. The ruling People Power Party protested the bills as having the potential to increase government influe

Politics Dec. 8, 2023

South Korea’s ruling party on Friday announced a fresh batch of recruits to run in the 2024 general election. Among the five recruits disclosed by the People Power Party’s parliamentary recruitment committee is Park Chung-kwon, a North Korean defector who worked in intercontinental ballistic missile research at the National Defense University in Pyongyang. The 37-year-old has been a researcher at Hyundai Steel since he escaped from North Korea in 2009. The committee said Park was &ld

Politics Dec. 8, 2023

The South Korean national inspection service concluded Thursday that the previous Moon Jae-in administration attempted to cover up North Korea’s killing of a South Korean government official in 2020, after failing to make rescue efforts while the official was in North Korean captivity. In its final report, the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea accused the preceding administration of mishandling the events leading to and after the death of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official.

Politics Dec. 7, 2023

The high court in Seoul on Wednesday ruled against Apple in a damages suit filed by consumers here over allegations the US tech giant purposefully degraded the performance of older iPhones in a controversy that came to be known as “batterygate.” The Seoul high court on this day called on Apple to pay 70,000 won ($53) each to seven iPhone owners who were part of the lawsuit that accused the company of slowing down the devices through software updates. The owners then alleged that the

Social Affairs Dec. 6, 2023

The head of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kim Myung-soo, on Tuesday visited the Capital Defense Command to assess readiness against enemy uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, infiltrating Seoul's airspace. The JCS chairman called for thorough preparations for countering possible enemy threats that could arise in Seoul and nearby areas, especially in the skies. Over his visit to the command force in the capital, he said close coordination among the military, police and government

Defense Dec. 5, 2023

The descendant of a veteran who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War was tapped on Monday to head the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office nominated Kang Jung-ai, a 66-year-old business professor and the former president of Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, to replace Park Min-shik, who has been handling affairs related to veterans and their families since 2022. If her appointment is confirmed, she would be the second to lead the government age

Politics Dec. 4, 2023

Prosecutors searched an office in Gyeonggi Province on Monday as part of a criminal investigation surrounding the province's former governor and the current chairperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, Rep. Lee Jae-myung. The main opposition chief’s spouse, Kim Hye-kyung, and at least one of his close aides are accused of having misappropriated the province’s public funds while he was serving as governor. Prosecutors in Suwon in Gyeonggi Province said they seized records of pay

Politics Dec. 4, 2023

South Korea’s ruling party is seeking an amendment to laws that punish employers for serious industrial accidents that would give workplaces with fewer than 50 employees an exemption for another two years. In a statement issued after a high-level meeting with the concerned ministries on Sunday, the People Power Party said that smaller workplaces were not yet prepared to keep up with the laws enacted in January 2021. The party said that applying the laws indiscriminately could lead to closu

Politics Dec. 3, 2023

North Korea said Sunday a clash and even war with South Korea was only a “matter of time,” about a day after Seoul’s first military reconnaissance satellite was launched into orbit. The satellite, the first of the five South Korea is planning to send into space by 2025, lifted off from the US Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX rocket at 10:19 a.m. Friday and reached orbit soon after, according to the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. The National Defense Ministry s

North Korea Dec. 3, 2023