During the previous Park Geun-hye administration, most high-profile decisions about national security were led by two former Army generals: Han Min-koo and Kim Kwan-jin. Kim was first defense minister and then the president’s chief security adviser. Han, two years junior to Kim, took over the minister’s office from Kim. The duo shared many aspects in common. They both graduated from the Korean Military Academy, equivalent to West Point in the US, and climbed up the military ladder much faster th

Defense June 1, 2017

Since South Korea and the United States announced in February last year that they had kicked off negotiations to station a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery here, the whole process has been shrouded in secrecy.The deployment of THAAD components -- two launchers arrived at Osan Air Base in March -- began at midnight and went public a day later. Despite a series of reports that there were four additional launchers placed somewhere to complete a THAAD battery, the allies had not verified

Defense May 31, 2017

With Monday’s missile test, North Korea appeared to have succeeded in developing a new ballistic missile capable of striking South Korean and US warships operating on the peninsula, possibly US aircraft carriers, experts in South Korea said Tuesday. The North fired what is considered to be a variant of a Scud-type missile from the North’s coastal city of Wonsan on Monday, which flew at least 450 kilometers, according to South Korean military. The projectile is believed to be the same type of ant

North Korea May 30, 2017

North Korea fired at least one short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea on Monday, said South Korea’s military, in an apparent effort to demonstrate its advanced ballistic missile capability and use it as leverage for potential negotiation over the regime’s nuclear program. The suspected Scud-type missile lifted off at 5:39 a.m. from the North’s coastal city of Wonsan and flew at least 450 kilometers, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Japanese government said the missile lan

North Korea May 29, 2017

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres has expressed his support for a deal between South Korea and Japan over wartime sex slaves, Japanese news media said Sunday, despite controversy surrounding the agreement that has worsened bilateral ties. In his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G-7 summit Saturday, Guterres said he “supports and welcomes” the 2015 deal designed to resolve dispute over sex slavery, the Kyodo News Agency reported, citing the Japanese Foreign

Foreign Affairs May 28, 2017

A Navy captain was arrested Thursday on charges of sexual assault following the death of a Navy lieutenant in an apparent suicide. According to the Navy, the female lieutenant was found dead at her home Wednesday. Her body was discovered by a friend who came by when she did not show up for work.  Navy (Yonhap)The captain, who worked at the Navy headquarters in Kyerong, was arrested by the military police after a friend of the victim told the police that she was sexually assaulted, added the Navy

Defense May 25, 2017

The top US commander in South Korea on Thursday stressed that the US advanced anti-missile system deployed here will bring a critically important and unprecedented opportunity to boost area defense capability against North Korea‘s ballistic missiles. Speaking at a forum in Seoul, Vincent K. Brooks, commander of US Forces Korea, pointed out allies’ “vulnerability” against the communist regime’s escalating missile and nuclear threats.“North Korea is not yet deterred in the direction it is heading

North Korea May 25, 2017

Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday the flying vehicles that prompted warning shots after crossing the border a day ago were found to be “balloon-shaped” gadgets apparently carrying propaganda leaflets against South Korea. Several objects were detected breaching the Military Demarcation Line near Cheorwon Country, Gangwon Province, between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, inducing the South Korean Army to broadcast warnings and then fire hundreds of rounds of K-3 machine gun, according to the J

North Korea May 24, 2017

South Korea’s military on Tuesday fired warning shots against an unidentified flying vehicle crossing a military demarcation line that separates the two Koreas, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It was unclear whether the object was a North Korean unmanned aerial vehicle, the JCS said. The object flew from the North and briefly breached the military demarcation line near Cheorwon Country, Gangwon Province, at 4 p.m. (Yonhap)The South Korean Army responded with 90 rounds of K-3 machine gun afte

North Korea May 23, 2017

Since the beginning of this year, North Korea has launched a total of eight ballistic missiles, two of them after President Moon Jae-in was sworn in as South Korea’s commander in chief on May 10. Through the tests, Pyongyang has demonstrated capability using solid fuel to avoid detection and surgical strikes, and inched closer to acquiring re-entry technology for liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles.A new intermediate-range ballistic missile, called the Pukguksong-2, is launched fro

North Korea May 22, 2017

The Patriots and Veteran Affairs Ministry was created in 1961 as a state body dedicated to war veterans and retired solders. But in reality, it looked more like an old guards’ network in which retired generals were handpicked from their own exclusive inner circles and devoted most of their tenure to promoting chauvinistic ideas.The decadeslong tradition may come to an end, with a new chief -- who is drastically different from predecessors -- taking office Thursday. Pi Woo-jin, who was sworn in a

Politics May 18, 2017

President Moon Jae-in’s special envoy to Japan said Wednesday that he would not discuss with his Japanese counterpart a renegotiation of a controversial deal over Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during the World War II.“I would go overboard as a special envoy if I proposed renegotiation,” said Rep. Moon Hee-Sang of the president’s governing Democratic Party of Korea. “I’m just a special envoy. I’ll deliver (to the Japanese counterpart) the president’s message and the (Korean) peoples’

Politics May 17, 2017

An opposition lawmaker is pushing for legislation to give special perks to families with a tradition of military service spanning three generations or even longer. Rep. Hong Chul-ho of the minor opposition Bareun Party announced Wednesday his plan to soon present the bill to the National Assembly.An image of a soldier (Yonhap)The proposal envisions various benefits for families with three generations of military service such as free health check-ups, employment benefits and exemption from variou

Politics May 17, 2017

North Korea may be behind the ransomware attacks that disrupted computer systems across the world over the weekend, cyber security experts said Tuesday, suggesting a link between the latest attack and a hacking group associated with Pyongyang. Researchers from two cybersecurity providers, US software company Symantec and the Russian-based Kaspersky Lab, said that some of the code found in the latest “WannaCry” ransomware was nearly identical to code used by the Lazarus Group, a North Korean-run

North Korea May 16, 2017

With South Korea hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the Moon Jae-in government is seeking to use the event as a platform to kick-start dialogue with the North and set the tone for a nuclear moratorium in return for a restart of economic cooperation, a presidential adviser told The Korea Herald.But Choi Jong-kun, a professor in political science and international studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, emphasized that any thaw in relations with Pyongyang should be premised on its “ex

North Korea May 11, 2017