Some Indonesian employees at the Korea Aerospace Industries have been barred from leaving South Korea on suspicions they were trying to steal secrets about KF-21 fighter technology. KAI reported the employees to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration last month after becoming suspicious of an attempted leak. The administration, a public affiliate of the Ministry of National Defense, said that an investigation is underway to determine if the information the employees are suspected of stor

Reforming military obligations for men in South Korea has always been a flashpoint for heated debate. But recently, fuel has been added to the fire with the emergence of two rather radical ideas. One idea came from professor Choi Young-jin of Chung-Ang University in Seoul, who proposed in an op-ed for a local daily the formation of a "senior army" composed of men aged 55 to 75 to address an anticipated shortfall in military personnel. In South Korea, which faces the nuclear-armed, bell

Last crash of US Forces Korea aircraft was Dec. 11

Opposition party in Seoul says Yoon failed security management following consecutive missile launches

A new front-line barracks of the United Nations Command Security Battalion has been named after two US Army officers who were killed in a 1976 axe incident as a tribute their sacrifices, the command said Tuesday. Major Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett were killed by North Korean soldiers on August 18, 1976, in the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone while trimming a poplar tree to secure a clear view. The "Bonifas & Barrett Barracks" for US officers in Cam

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Monday said in a preliminary analysis it found North Korea’s claims of the capabilities of its new strategic cruise missiles to be exaggerated. The South Korean military detected North Korea launching cruise missiles at around 8 a.m. Sunday toward waters near the port city of Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province, the home to a North Korean base for submarines. “We are looking into the possibility that the flight time claimed by North Korea may h

South Korea aims to develop an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft deployable from warships by 2028, the state arms procurement agency said Monday, amid efforts to boost surveillance against North Korean threats. Last month, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration signed a contract worth 143.3 billion won ($107.1 million) with defense company Hanwha Systems to develop the rotary-wing aircraft by December 2028. DAPA said the aircraft is designed to be deployed from warships, as well as Marine

The Ministry of National Defense in Seoul on Sunday denied reports that the South Korean military was still putting off drills near the shared border, as per the 2018 inter-Korean agreement that North Korea withdrew from earlier. “Our military can hold drills according to its own plan, only there aren’t such plans yet,” a senior defense ministry official told The Korea Herald. “There is no official decision or guidance in place that is preventing our military from conduct

North Korea on Sunday morning fired several cruise missiles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The JCS said in a message to reporters that the missiles landed at around 8 a.m. in waters near the North Korean port city of Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province, on the eastern coast. “Our military is closely coordinating with the US side amid heightened vigilance and surveillance, and watching for further signs and activities

The missiles North Korea launched toward the sea west of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday had been its new strategic cruise missiles, according to its official media. The state official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that it had test-fired the new strategic cruise missile, whose name Pulhwasal-3-31 means fire arrow in Korean, for the first time the previous day. North Korea’s Missile General Bureau said the first testing of the cruise missiles came as a “part of the proces

South Korea has begun production of medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles to enhance the military's surveillance over North Korea, the state-run procurement agency said Thursday. In December, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration signed a 471.7 billion-won ($353.6 million) deal with Korean Air, South Korea's biggest airline, along with two defense firms, LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Systems, to manufacture advanced spy drones by 2028. The state-run Agency for Defense Development ini

North Korea trying to work generative AI into hacking operations

The main opposition party on Wednesday rolled out a set of pledges aimed at improving the livelihoods of soldiers here, including raising their night and weekend shift payments. The pledges were announced by Democratic Party of Korea Chair Lee Jae-myung during his visit to the Second Marine Division in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, in the morning. The party plans to help the Ministry of Defense raise the weekday late shift pay for soldiers from the current 10,000 won ($7.50) to 30,000 won per shif

Extra military aid from Putin may involve air defense systems at potential Pyongyang summit

A Navy officer who survived North Korea's 2010 sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan took the helm of a new frigate named after the ill-fated corvette, the Navy said Monday. The FFG-826 Daegu-class frigate was named after the ROKS Cheonan, which sank in the Yellow Sea after the North Korean torpedo attack in March 2010, killing 46 sailors. Commander Park Yeon-soo, who served as the operations officer on the Cheonan, became the commanding officer of the ROKS Cheonan frigate during an i