A new high-speed patrol boat will be delivered to South Korea's Navy on Monday, the first of several 230-ton vessels to replace aging ones in operation near the tense inter-Korean sea border in the Yellow Sea, the country's arms agency said.The Navy will receive the new 230-ton patrol killer medium rocket ship in a ceremony to be held at Busan shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.It will be deployed to western front-line waters near the

The South Korean government suggested offering maintenance support for US strategic military assets, seeking to have more deployed here, a government source said Sunday.  The USS Ronald Reagan leaves the South Korean port of Busan. (Yonhap)“In regards to the expansion of the rotational deployment of US strategic assets, which is currently in talks to effectively counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, the government has expressed the intention to the US to provide maintenance service

The timing of South Korea's resumption of wartime operational control from the United States has gained fresh attention due to a subtle change in the wording of their annual defense ministers' joint statement released Saturday.At the close of the Security Consultative Meeting, Defense Minister Song Young-moo and his US counterpart James Mattis issued a statement that affirmed their leaders' decision in June to enable an "expeditious" OPCON transfer. This photo, taken Oct. 28, 2017, shows South K

South Korea and the United States’ defense chiefs on Saturday pledged they would never tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea, warning that any provocations would be met with “massive and overwhelming” retaliation. 　During their annual Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul, Defense Minister Song Young-moo and his US counterpart Jim Mattis reiterated their commitment to a diplomatic approach to the North, but stressed military options were on the table and they will carry weight in finding a diplo

The armed forces of South Korea and the US agreed Friday to deal resolutely with North Korea‘s additional provocations on the basis of their “ironclad” alliance.In their Military Committee Meeting in Seoul, Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo, chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his American counterpart Gen. Joseph Dunford agreed to “continuously develop effective response measures in order to deter, and if necessary, firmly respond to additional provocation,” according to their joint press s

US, Korea defense chiefs stress diplomacy to resolve nuclear standoff with NK

South Korea is not considering expressing regrets over the deployment of a US missile defense system here as part of efforts to mend its ties with China, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday, dismissing reports that also suggested Beijing has made such a request."China has not made any request regarding our expression of regret as a precondition to holding a South Korea-China summit," a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters while asking not to be identified."Because the government h

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was scheduled to meet US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Friday, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.The meeting will be held later in the day at Cheong Wa Dae. Mattis arrived here earlier in the day for an annual defense dialogue between the allies, called the Security Consultative Meeting that will be held Saturday.The meeting between Moon and Mattis was largely expected to focus on the upcoming Korea-US summit, slated to be held here in Seoul on Nov

WASHINGTON -- The United States' deployment of three aircraft carriers to the western Pacific provides South Korea with assurance against the threat of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, the Pentagon said Thursday.This week the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt joined the USS Ronald Reagan, which is homeported in Japan, in the western Pacific Ocean as part of what the US Navy said were routine operations. USS Ronald Reagan (Yonhap)The deployment came amid heightened tensions over No

The chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will visit South Korea next week to discuss a wide range of issues, including North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats, the foreign ministry said Friday.During his three-day trip starting Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will make a courtesy call to President Moon Jae-in and meet with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. He is to visit the Demilitarized Zone, which separates South and North Korea, the ministry said. He wi

The top military officials of South Korea and the US will visit the Demilitarized Zone together this week and issue a warning message to North Korea, an official said Thursday.Defense Minister Song Young-moo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis plan to tour the Joint Security Area, where South and North Korean forces stand face-to-face, on Friday.  South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo (R) and his American counterpart James Mattis shake hands during their talks at the Pentagon on Aug. 30

WASHINGTON -- A preventive military strike by the United States would not remove all of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, a renowned American expert on the North Korean issue has said, while proposing economic sanctions as the most viable tool to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program."A preventive military strike would not destroy all of North Korea's capabilities. It would risk a wider war that would inflame South Korea and Japan and potentially cause millions of cas

CLARK, Philippines  -- The defense chiefs of South Korea and China on Tuesday held their first bilateral talks in nearly in two years, taking a meaningful step toward warming relations chilled by a standoff over the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system on the peninsula.South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo met with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan for about half an hour in Clark, the Philippines, on the margin of a regional security forum, a South Korean government official

US President Donald Trump has been briefed on a South Korean party's calls for the redeployment of tactical nuclear arms to the Korean Peninsula to counter growing North Korean threats, a party official said.Khang Hyo-shang, the spokesman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, said in Washington on Monday (local time) that the Central Intelligence Agency kept Trump informed of the public sentiment in Korea about the redeployment.Khang was accompanying party chief Hong Joon-pyo and other law

　South Korea, the United States and Japan on Tuesday began a two-day missile warning drill to better detect and track incoming missiles in the event of a possible North Korean attack. 　According to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the joint military exercise took place in waters off the coasts of South Korea and Japan. Included in the drill were the Aegis destroyer Yulgok Yii of South Korea, the USS Stethem and USS Decatur Aegis destroyers from the US, and a JDS Kirishima destroyer from Japan.　The