The Military Manpower Administration said Monday that it had decided to postpone the physical examinations for conscript candidates nationwide by another week to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The tests, which have been suspended since Feb. 24, will resume April 20, but they could be further put back depending on the situation. Over the weekend, the government said it would extend the social distancing campaign, requiring citizens to avoid unnecessary outdoor activities for another two weeks.

The defense ministry said Monday it will strengthen education for soldiers on the use of mobile phones to prevent digital sex crimes, after an Army soldier has been accused of involvement in a high-profile online sexual blackmail case. The private first class, whose identity has been withheld, is under investigation over suspicions he distributed content of women performing gruesome sex acts under coercion in collaboration with the so-called Nth room case's prime suspect, Cho Ju-bin. The milit

Vice Adm. Boo Suk-jong, chief of the military support directorate at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was designated Monday as the new Navy chief after being promoted to the four-star rank, the defense ministry said. Boo, 56, was tapped to replace Sim Seung-seob, who took office in July 2018, and President Moon Jae-in will officially appoint him following Cabinet deliberations on Tuesday, according to the ministry. He was commissioned as an ensign in 1986 and has served in key naval roles, includin

The military on Monday began a mission to remove land mines in southern regions to promote local residents' safety and convenience, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The military will mobilize some 1,400 service members from 26 engineering units from the Army, Air Force and the Marine Corps to search and clear the mines near Mount Cheonseong and Mount Geumgseong in the Gyeongsang provinces by next year, it said. The government plans to develop trekking courses at the areas for local reside

A Seoul-based lab tested 72 American troops positive for COVID-19, but the US military in Korea said they belonged to soldiers stationed elsewhere, and not here, a local report said Sunday. 　 A US hospital at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, where the US military is headquartered, sent clinical specimens to the lab, which shared the results with the city in Gyeonggi Province, as it was bound by law to do so. The city pressed the US military for more details, but it came to confirm only the fact t

The Air Force is pushing to deploy its first advanced unmanned aircraft Global Hawk within this year, sources said Friday. South Korea brought in the RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) in December and has been working to put it in operation. A reconnaissance squadron was established in charge of the asset that month. "Related work for its operational deployment has been going on without a hitch," a military source said, adding that the exact time frame is subje

Two American citizens working for the US Forces Korea tested positive for the coronavirus Friday, USFK said, bringing the total number of infections among its population to 17. One of the contractors works at Osan Air Base and the other at Camp Humphreys, both located in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, USFK said, adding that they are currently in isolation at their respective off-base residences. The first patient last visited the base on Wednesday, and authorities have conducted co

More than a dozen Air Force officers were caught drinking on emergency standby, the military said Thursday, sparking criticism about lax discipline. A total of 16 officers affiliated with the 10th Fighter Wing in Suwon, south of Seoul, drank beer on three separate occasions between August and September last year at the base's alert area where airmen stay for emergency operations. They were in charge of either F-4E or F-5 fighters. An informant reported this to the defense ministry in February

South Korea's top security officials agreed Thursday to continue efforts for an agreement with the United States on defense cost-sharing, Cheong Wa Dae said. In a weekly standing committee session of the National Security Council (NSC), the officials reviewed progress in the negotiations on the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) between the allies. They "agreed to continue efforts to strike a deal at an early date," Cheong Wa Dae said in spite of multiple news reports that Seoul and Wa

Nearly half of Koreans working at the US military in Korea went on indefinite, unpaid leave Wednesday, taken hostage by drawn-out negotiations between Korea and the US on how to share costs for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops here. “Today, approximately half of the USFK Korean national employee workforce has been furloughed due to a lapse in the Special Measures Agreement,” Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of the US military in Korea, said, referring to the cost-sharing deal the a

US Forces Korea (USFK) reported another coronavirus case Wednesday, bringing the total number of USFK-related infections to 14. The new COVID-19 case came from Camp Humphreys, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, according to USFK. "The individual works at a remote isolated site," Garrison Commander Col. Michael Tremblay said on Facebook Live. Further details were not immediately available. A USFK official said the military will stop providing related releases following the Pentagon's orde

South Korea has developed a new port surveillance system with indigenous technologies that can better detect increasingly quiet submarines and other underwater moving objects, the arms procurement agency said Wednesday. The advanced maritime surveillance system, developed by the Agency for Defense Development with a 130 billio- won ($106.6 million) budget since 2015, has been installed at major ports across the country, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said. "Submarin

South Korea and the United States could announce a defense cost-sharing agreement as early as Wednesday, a source said, as thousands of Koreans workers in the US Forces Korea went on unpaid leave in the absence of a deal to fund their wages. "In the broad scheme of things, the two sides have clearly reached the stage of putting the finishing touch on the negotiations, though various possibilities remain still open," the source told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity. "

South Korea's top negotiator in defense cost-sharing talks with the United States expressed regrets Tuesday over the planned furloughs of thousands of Koreans employed by US Forces Korea, calling on Washington to make efforts to enable their swift return to work. Jeong Eun-bo also voiced expectation for the conclusion of the negotiations in the near future, stressing Seoul and Washington have "considerably" narrowed their differences over the sharing of the cost for stationing 28,500

The US military has transferred prematurely born twins of an American soldier couple stationed in South Korea's coronavirus-hit city of Daegu to a Navy hospital in the United States to provide them with better care even though they were not infected with the coronavirus, an official has said. The babies were transported from a neonatal intensive care unit in Daegu to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington via Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, a