South Korea's Defense Minister Song Young-moo refused Wednesday to confirm a controversial North Korean official's alleged link to the communist state's naval attack in 2010 that killed 46 South Korean sailors.Song's remarks came amid continued criticism of Seoul's decision to embrace Kim Yong-chol, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party, as the chief of Pyongyang's delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.Kim has been accused o

The foreign ministry has summoned China's ambassador to South Korea to lodge a complaint after a Chinese military aircraft intruded upon the South Korean air defense identification zone a day earlier, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday. On Tuesday morning, the Chinese jet entered the KADIZ and approached 30 nautical miles, or 55.5 kilometers, northwest of Ulleung Island in the East Sea before flying out of the zone. The jet remained within the KADIZ for more than four hours before retrea

After he was promoted to a four-star general in 2005, Kim Kwan-jin hung pictures of the North Korean military leadership in his office -- a practice that continued until Kim became the defense minister in 2010 and presidential security adviser four years later.　The practice earned him popularity among conservatives at a time when cross-border tensions escalated following the North’s sinking of the South Korean Cheonan warship and an artillery strike on the border island of Yeonpyeong.　The decora

China flew a military aircraft into South Korea's air defense identification zone for over four hours Tuesday without giving prior notification, defense authorities here said.The plane came close to South Korean territory, prompting the Air Force to scramble fighter jets to monitor its activity, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. More than 10 planes, including F-15ks and KF-16s, were dispatched.The Chinese jet entered the KADIZ at around 9:34 a.m. and approached some 30 nautical miles, or 5

When North Korea held a military parade earlier this month just as athletes from around the world gathered in PyeongChang to celebrate the Olympics, attention was on whether Pyongyang would showcase a new intercontinental ballistic missile to the world. The international community was quite relieved to see little evidence of new ICBMs at what was described as a low-profile parade -- though North Korea showcased ICBM-class Hwasong 14 and 15, which it successfully test-fired last year. However, th

The US military is working on continued improvements to its operation plan to evacuate American civilians in case of a war on the Korean Peninsula, Voice of America reported Wednesday.The US Forces Korea and US Army Pacific are conducting noncombatant evacuation drills on a regular basis to check on the strategic and tactical aspects of the operation, such as designating places of assembly in Korea, said Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for US Army Pacific in Hawaii, according to the US broa

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon said Tuesday that details on currently suspended South Korea-US military exercises will be released after the Olympics end next month.South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said earlier in the day that the allies will announce the dates of the exercises once both the Olympics and Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, are over on March 18. The announcement will come before April, he added."The United States and the Republic of Korea deconflicted the start of ou

　Faced with North Korea’s sophisticated missile and nuclear capabilities, the South Korean Army came up with its own solutions to better counter the evolving military threat: drones and robots.　During a meeting with lawmakers Tuesday, the Army said it will create “dronbot” battle units for surveillance and combat mission at Ground Operations Command scheduled to be established this year. 　Assigned to division-level units and above, the dronbot units would help the military’s contingency efforts

South Korea's defense ministry affirmed Tuesday that the country's troops will conduct combined command-post drills with the United States this year despite Olympics-driven rapprochement with North Korea.The allies will hold the Key Resolve and the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises in order to develop their so-called 4D Operational Concept to detect, disrupt, destroy and defend against North Korean missile threats, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report to the National Assembly.But it

South Korea appears to be toning down its loudspeaker-based propaganda broadcasts against North Korea in light of cross-border relations improved on the occasion of the PyeongChang Olympics, informed lawmakers and officials said Sunday.The two Koreas are known to have long resorted to propaganda broadcasts using loudspeakers installed near the heavily fortified border to condemn each other's political and social systems.As part of its psychological warfare campaign, the South Korean military has

The commandant of South Korea's Marine Corps inspected the defense posture at two of the front-line islands near North Korea on Friday.Lt. Gen. Jun Jin-goo visited Maldo and Udo. Jin checked troops' readiness for wintertime contingency operations and offered words of encouragement to soldiers stationed at the islands along the inter-Korean maritime border, according to the Marine Corps.  Lt. Gen. Jun Jin-goo visited Maldo and Udo and checked troops' readiness for wintertime contingency operation

With North Korea’s high-level delegation having returned home after waging a peace offensive during the PyeongChang Olympics, South Korea is preparing to continue the momentum for an inter-Korean thaw by resuming long-stalled military talks. Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said that the resumption of military talks is crucial to easing cross-border tensions that have been lessened since the North Korean participation in the Winter Olympics. “In order to move forward with e

South Korea's defense ministry said Tuesday it's still waiting for North Korea's response to its months-old offer of military talks, maintaining its strategic ambiguity about the future of joint war games with the United States."We are making preparations" for the talks, although no specific schedule has been set yet, the ministry's spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said at a press briefing.She added the inter-Korean military hotline is in normal operation, but there's no communication on the agreed-up

The Ministry of National Defense on Monday announced a judicial reform plan focused on abolishing the military appellate court and the guardhouse system."The government has devised the military judicial reform plan with an aim to accommodate growing calls for innovation and to substantially guarantee conscripts' constitutional rights and human rights," the ministry said, adding the plan will be put into action as part of its wider military reform scheme.Under the plan, the Seoul High Court will