Two US strategic bombers have been spotted near the Korean Peninsula, a flight tracker said Friday, amid heightened tensions after North Korea threatened South Korea over the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets. The two B-52Hs were seen flying over northern Japan on Friday, according to Aircraft Spots. It did not provide other details such as exactly when the bombers were spotted. This marked the second time that the heavy bombers have flown near the Korean Peninsula this week. Two B-52Hs part

South Korea and the United States should resume large-scale joint military exercises to make North Korea agitated and realize it is overstepping, said Vincent Brooks, who headed the 28,500-strong combined forces command between Seoul and Washington. “Now is a good time to say we’re going to go through with the exercise here in late summer,” Brooks said Wednesday, two days after the North demolished an inter-Korean liaison office amid escalating tensions on the peninsula prompt

The remains of nearly 147 South Korean soldiers who perished during the Korean War are set to return home this month from the United States, where they were sent from North Korea. The US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Thursday that it was returning the “largest volume” of war remains that included Korean soldiers since receiving them from the North in July 2018. About half of the remains set to come here had come from North Korea at that time, a month after the historic fir

South Korea's top Army and Navy brass on Thursday called on troops to maintain a firm military posture to handle the serious security situation facing the country. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Suh Wook and his naval counterpart, Adm. Boo Suk-jong, chaired respective senior commanders' meetings during the day, with both ordering frontline units to be fully prepared for any developments that may arise. Inter-Korean tensions have reached high levels as North Korea threatened to thwart all joint proj

An American service member newly assigned to South Korea has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the US Forces Korea said Thursday. The latest COVID-19 case brought the total number of infections among the USFK population to 35. The airman arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, Monday on a US government-chartered flight, and was put in mandatory quarantine upon arrival. After receiving the test result, he was moved to an isolation facility. "US

South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo vowed strong responses to any aggression from North Korea, blaming the North for disappointing the expectations of those wishing for peace on the peninsula.  “We will forcefully respond to any attack from North Korea, without hesitation. We will keep under control the escalating tensions between the two Koreas,” Jeong said Thursday at an event to thank Korean War veterans. Hours earlier the military said it had yet to detect

A US surveillance aircraft flew over South Korea, an aviation tracker said Thursday, the latest in a series of flights to monitor North Korea amid Pyongyang's threat to take military action against Seoul. The US Air Force's RC-135W Rivet Joint was spotted in skies above the capital area, Aircraft Spots tweeted, without specifying the exact time of the operation. The US Navy's EP-3E and US Forces Korea's RC-12X were also recently spotted flying over the peninsula, according to military source

The United States flew surveillance aircraft over South Korea on an apparent mission to monitor North Korea, a military source said Wednesday, amid escalating tensions between the two Koreas. "The US Navy's EP-3E and US Forces Korea's RC-12X were spotted flying over the capital area," the source said. The flight came as North Korea has been ratcheting up tensions on the peninsula, signaling a move to abolish an inter-Korean military tension-reduction deal signed in 2018. Earlier in

South Korea's military warned Wednesday it will make sure that North Korea "pays the price" if it actually takes military action against the South. The Joint Chiefs of Staff statement came hours after North Korea said it will redeploy troops to an inter-Korean industrial park in the western border town of Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang joint tourism zone on the east coast. The North also said it will restore guard posts removed from the Demilitarized Zone separating the two sides and

There has been no talk whatsoever of scaling back the number of US troops stationed here, a Defense Ministry official confirmed Tuesday. The issue resurfaced here after the US announced it was reducing its military presence in Germany. “Nothing has been discussed on that matter,” the Seoul official said under customary condition of anonymity, echoing what South Korea’s chief negotiator for the defense cost-sharing negotiations with the US had said earlier. US President Dona

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said Monday the government is pushing to spend more money on buying arms developed by South Korean companies to help them cope with the growing economic fallout from the new coronavirus. Jeong made the remark during a meeting with chief executive officers of the country's leading defense firms, referring to the cancellation of foreign defense expos and suspension of export talks in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. "We are putting efforts to spend more o

Thousands of South Korean employees for the US Forces Korea returned to work Monday following months of unpaid leave, after Seoul and Washington agreed upon a wage deal amid their stalled defense-cost sharing negotiations. More than 4,000 South Korean workers had been on the furlough since April 1, as Seoul and Washington failed to reach an agreement on a new Special Measures Agreement (SMA) that stipulates how much Seoul will pay for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong USFK. But the furlough was

US President Donald Trump was "very clear" that he wants to bring US troops home from South Korea, Japan and other allies, his former ambassador to Germany said, stressing Americans are "tired of paying too much" for the defense of other countries. Richard Grenell made the remarks in an interview with the German newspaper Bild earlier this week while confirming a plan to pull out 9,700 US troops from Germany -- about 30 percent of the total 34,674 US troops in the European

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Thursday called for strict surveillance against illegal entry, his office said, following the military's security failures over illegal Chinese entrants on small boats. During his visit to the Army's Second Operations Command in the southeastern city of Daegu, the defense chief ordered the military to "intensively" carry out a series of measures to prevent similar incidents from recurring. Last month, eight Chinese arrived in the western coastal

The military carried out a firing drill off the east coast Thursday, officials said, amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula with the North threatening to treat South Korea as an enemy. The exercise had originally been scheduled for last month but was postponed due to bad weather amid speculation that officials could have put it off to avoid angering North Korea because Pyongyang reacted angrily to a similar drill earlier last month. The North could protest this week's exercise too.