The military decided to partially allow vacations for new recruits as part of efforts to ease the stress of troops amid an extension of toughened social distancing in barracks for another two weeks, the defense ministry said Monday. Since November, the ministry has enforced Level 2.5 social distancing rules, the second highest in its five-tier alert system, following a series of COVID-19 infections across the country. Under the social distancing scheme, troops' vacations and one-day off-instal

South Korea will invest 2.6 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in the next five years to improve the safety management system in the defense sector, the defense ministry said Monday. Under the plan, the government will cultivate more safety specialists and push to establish a big data-based information system to better manage safety issues by 2025, according to the ministry. The plan also includes replacing old military vehicles with new ones, establishing safety tools for facilities and securing mor

Four US B-52H long-range bombers have been deployed to the Pacific island of Guam for training missions aimed at reinforcing "the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region," the US Pacific Air Forces said. The bombers from the 96th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana "returned to the Indo-Pacific region Jan. 28 for a Bomber Task Force deployment, conducting operations out of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam," it said. They were deployed &quo

A defective inverter module was found to have been the cause of an error message that led to a new 214-class submarine having to be towed in the East Sea earlier this month, Navy officials said Sunday. The Navy decided to inspect all 214-class submarines to ensure that no such problems would happen again, after finding that a defect was reported in the same part of another submarine of the same type two years ago too, officials said. The latest incident happened on Jan. 23 when the submarine w

South Korea is in the final stage of assembling a prototype of what would be the country's first indigenously developed fighter jet, which is expected to be unveiled in April, officials said Sunday. South Korea has been working on the KF-X project since 2015 to develop a homegrown cutting-edge fighter aircraft to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of F-4 and F-5 jets. In September last year, Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI) got down to the final assembly of a prototype jet and is now in t

South Korea has identified the remains of two soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War through DNA analysis after they were recovered from former battle sites near the inter-Korean border, the defense ministry said Friday. Pfc. Kim Sung-geun was presumed to have been killed during a battle in 1950 that took place in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, and his remains were excavated in the region in April 2010. The identification was possible as his 73-year-old son registered his DNA sample with the

South Korea stands fully capable of countering the latest short-range missiles that North Korea has test-fired, South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook said Wednesday. Speaking at a New Year’s press conference, Suh highlighted Seoul’s missile defense, saying it could bring down even some of Pyongyang’s untested new missiles. The military is seeking a foolproof shield against the remaining missiles, Suh said. “Our defense is airtight and we’re superior. We hav

Seven American service members and one dependent have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon their arrival in South Korea this month, US Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday. Six of the service members arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on US government-chartered flights while the other service member and the dependent arrived on commercial flights via Incheon International airport, west of the capital, according to the US military. Five of them tested pos

An Army draftee in Paju, north of Seoul, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Thursday. The soldier was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 in a second virus test conducted after joining the boot camp, according to the ministry. All other conscripts who joined the camp with the soldier tested negative. The latest case raised the total number of infections reported among the military population to 546. Nationwide, South Korea added 497 new virus cases Thurs

The defense ministry called Wednesday on the Navy chief to take "special caution" in conducting his duties, a measure that followed an inspection into the allegations he failed to attend an emergency meeting on a missing officer earlier this month after drinking alcohol. But the ministry dismissed the claims that Adm. Boo Suk-jong failed to properly handle the case involving the officer, stressing he had faithfully carried out his role as the chief of naval operations at the time of

South Korea will invest 45 billion won ($41 million) in the next five years to develop next-generation technologies to track and monitor space objects, a state-run research center said Wednesday. The new laser-based technologies are aimed at better monitoring objects that fly over the Korean Peninsula amid an increase in the use of satellites for military purposes, according to the Defense Industry Technology Center. Hanwha Systems Co. will lead the research project that will be joined by a nu

Two US Department of Defense officials and two dependents of a service member based in South Korea have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Tuesday. One of the officials, who works at US Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 on Saturday following his direct contact with a person who tested positive earlier, according to the US military. The other department official working at the

The military will take additional steps to improve the security system along the eastern section of the inter-Korean border this year following a recent unhindered border crossing case by a North Korean, officials said Tuesday. In November last year, the North Korean civilian crossed the border in the town of Goseong into the South undeterred in a suspected defection attempt. Malfunction of sensors installed at the fences and other loopholes in the military's scientific security system were bla

South Korea has completed the deployment of K-14 sniper rifles and its observation device at infantry units to boost combat capabilities in missions involving precision attacks, the arms procurement agency said Tuesday. The K-14 rifle developed with domestic technology was first deployed for special forces in 2013 and was distributed to infantry battalions in 2017, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. With the deployment of the observation devices used along with the we

South Korea and the United States are working closely on the conditions-based wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer, as agreed upon earlier, the defense ministry said Monday, rebutting a media report that Seoul seeks to fix a date for the goal. Earlier in the day, local daily JoongAng Ilbo reported that South Korea abandoned its goal of regaining the operational control of its troops from Washington by the end of President Moon Jae-in's term, and instead aims to clearly fix a transition