US Defense Secretary Mark Esper will travel to South Korea next week for annual defense ministers' talks ahead of the expiry of a key military intelligence-sharing pact between Seoul and Tokyo, the Pentagon said Thursday. Esper will depart Wednesday to travel to Seoul, Bangkok, Manila and Hanoi, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said during a press briefing. He did not provide the exact dates, but it appears likely the secretary will travel in that order.Esper's trip to Seoul comes ahead of th

The ongoing defense cost-sharing negotiations between South Korea and the United States face a rough road ahead, with Washington reportedly asking Seoul to pay for expenses not included in the original agreement.The US has asked Korea to pay about $5 billion toward the cost of maintaining its troops stationed here for another year, about five times more than the current 1.04 trillion won ($861.4 million), local media reported Thursday. This amount reportedly would include items that are not stip

The defense ministry is considering making it mandatory for naturalized male citizens to serve in the military, as other South Korean men must do, in an effort to cope with a decrease in the number of draftees amid a shrinking population, a senior government official said Wednesday. The state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses is in the final stage of research on the issue, and based on the results, the ministry could begin procedures to revise the military service act as early as next yea

South Korea said Wednesday that it will reduce its number of troops to 500,000 by 2022 in the latest move to tackle looming demographic challenges as Asia's fourth-largest economy faces a rapidly aging population.Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki also said South Korea will reform the country's military in a way that utilizes technologies, such as weaponized drones, reconnaissance satellites and unmanned aircraft.The plan comes as the number of people required to serve in the military is projected to

The Army said Tuesday it has suspended the operation of Surion choppers, after one helicopter made an emergency landing due to signs of a malfunction during military operations.On Monday, the Surion chopper made "a preventive landing" at a military airbase in Yanggu, Gangwon Province, while taking part in military operations to ensure safety after unusual signs, including a slight vibration, were detected."Though there were no problems in the safety of crew members and the helicop

South Korea and the United States are not considering resuming their annual Vigilant Ace joint air exercise and will instead hold a scaled-back flying training together, officials said Tuesday.The allies decided last year to suspend the massive Vigilant Ace drills in an effort to support diplomatic efforts to convince the communist nation to give up its nuclear programs. The sides instead held a replacement exercise, called the Combined Flying Training Event.The Vigilant Ace maneuvers will be sk

The United States flew a RC-135S surveillance plane over South Korea's East Sea, an aviation tracker said Tuesday, on an apparent mission to collect intelligence regarding North Korea.The RC-135S Cobra Ball aircraft departed Kadena Air Base in Japan's Okinawa and flew over the East Sea earlier in the day, Aircraft Spots said in a Twitter post.The surveillance aircraft last made a similar flight over the region in early October. As one of America's major intelligence-gathering assets, the aircraf

South Korea and the United States are expected to skip a combined wintertime air exercise just as they did last year to support ongoing diplomacy for the denuclearization of North Korea, sources said Sunday. Military authorities of the two countries "shared the understanding" on the postponement of the Vigilant Ace air exercise that usually takes place around December, a source said, adding that a final decision will be made when the two countries hold annual defense ministers talks la

South Korea's military is expected to resume a project next week to excavate and identify war remains near the border with North Korea after it was suspended due to the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), officials said Saturday.The excavation mission will be restarted on Arrowhead Ridge, Cheorwon, some 90 kilometers northeast of Seoul, where about 300 soldiers from South Korea, the United States and France are believed to have been killed in bloody battles during the 1950-53 Korean War."

A Chinese military plane entered South Korea's air defense identification zone after sending prior notification on Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, in a turnaround from China's practice of breaching the zone without notice.The plane, believed to be Y-9 transport aircraft, sent advance notices before entering the South Korean air defense identification zone twice over waters near the country's southern island of Jeju. It stayed in the zone for about 77 minutes in total, according to the o

Two US B-52 strategic bombers flew over the East Sea last week, an aviation tracker said, in a mission possibly designed to send a warning in response to North Korea's recent series of missile launches. The bombers, which took off from Guam's Anderson Air Base, "conducted a mission" in the East Sea and "possibly the South China Sea" on Friday, Aircraft Spots said on a Twitter post. Three KC-135R aerial tankers provided support for their flight. The B-52 is considered a repres

US Forces Korea unveiled on Friday a photograph of its commander observing a firing drill by a South Korean artillery brigade in a frontline training ground in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of USFK and the Combined Forces of Command, visited the South Korean army’s 5th Artillery Brigade at Rodriquez Range along with Gen. Choi Byung-hyuk, deputy commander of CFC, for a live fire demonstration on Oct. 23, USFK said in a Facebook post with a photo of the two and Ge

South Korea and the United States wrapped up a new round of defense cost-sharing talks, the foreign ministry said Friday, amid low expectations of progress due to wide differences between the two sides. The two days of talks in Hawaii marked the second time the allies have met to negotiate a new Special Measures Agreement on how the two sides should share the cost of the upkeep of the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea.The first round of the talks took place in Seoul last month. Details o

As defense cost-sharing negotiations between South Korea and the United States were to take place Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper highlighted the importance of allies sharing the burden for maintaining US forces in their countries.“I’ve said since I took office, the importance of burden-sharing from all of our allies and partners, whether it’s host nation support in Japan, whether it’s increased GDP from our European allies, the key is to help share the burd

South Korean Vice Defense Minister Park Jae-min on Tuesday called for the swift establishment of an inter-Korean military committee that the South and the North agreed to set up during a summit of their leaders last year.Park made the remarks during a session on international arms control at the 9th Beijing Xiangshan Forum held in the Chinese capital city, referring to the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) that the two Koreas signed on the sidelines of the third summit between President Moo