About a dozen South Korean defense manufacturers will promote their signature products at an international defense exhibition that kicked off Tuesday in Poland, Seoul officials said.The 25th International Defense Industry Exhibition MSPO will run till Friday in the central Polish city of Kielce, bringing together 650 defense companies from 35 countries across the globe.South Korea has been designated as the expo's lead nation in charge of making an opening speech and hosting of a joint seminar,

Senior defense ministry officials of South Korea and other Southeast Asian countries will gather in Seoul this week to discuss cooperation on regional security amid stepped-up tensions following North Korea's recent nuclear test. South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk will hold a meeting Wednesday with his counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to the ministry. South Korea`s Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk. (Yonhap)They are expected to disc

A top US naval commander said Tuesday his country will keep sending formidable defense assets to the Korean Peninsula in combined deterrence and response to North Korea's "self-destructive" actions.Adm. Scott Swift, who commands the US Pacific Fleet, stressed that although South Koreans stand closest to the North's threats, they "do not face this aggressor alone."He cited the North's continued provocations, including "ill-advised" ballistic missile launches and inflammatory warnings of nuclear w

With Sunday’s nuclear test, North Korea might have succeeded in making nuclear warheads small enough to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korea’s defense chief said Monday. 　In a parliamentary inquiry a day after the North conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test at Punggye-ri site, Defense Minister Song Young-moo told lawmakers that the military suspects the North may have secured technology to produce miniaturized nuclear warheads that weigh less than 500 kilograms

A local official on Jeju Island said Monday that a US naval ship carried out an underwater survey off the South Korean military base there last month, raising suspicions that it may be part of preparation for the deployment of US strategic assets. "The US Navy vessel Henson was spotted conducting an extensive survey of the sea off the base late into the night from Aug. 17-29," the official at the community center of Gangjeong Village, home to the base, said. The oceanographic survey ship went fa

South Korea's defense ministry announced Monday that the US Forces Korea will soon install four more THAAD missile defense launchers at its new southern base.The announcement came as the environment ministry accepted the results of an environmental impact survey of the THAAD system partially operational at the former golf course in Seongju, some 300 kilometers south of Seoul. Two THAAD rocket launchers are in operation there, with four others waiting for deployment. A US military chopper deliver

The Ministry of Environment said Monday it has given conditional consent to the deployment of a US missile defense system, removing the last administrative hurdle for its full operation fiercely opposed by local residents and activists.The ministry said it found the adverse environmental impact from deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense on the designated region of Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, to be limited, after reviewing the results of the Ministry of National Defense's surv

South Korea's military said Monday it conducted a combined live-fire exercise in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test a day earlier.The training aimed at improving the capability of striking the North's Pyunggye-ri nuclear test site involved the Hyunmoo ballistic missile system and F-15K fighter jets.In the drill, the Army's Hyunmoo-2A surface-to-surface missile and the F-15K's SLAM-ER precision-guided air-to-ground rocket accurately hit a designated target in the East Sea, according to

South Korea will discuss with the United States deploying the “most powerful US tactical weapons” here, in response to North Korea’s sixth test of nuclear weapons, its chief security officer said Sunday. Chung Eui-yong, President Moon Jae-in’s top security adviser, also said the country would push for the “strongest sanctions” against the defiant regime led by dictator Kim Jong-un in order to “completely” isolate it. “President Moon Jae-in said the country would not allow North Korea to continue

The United States is considering a rotational deployment of its stealth jets to South Korea in response to North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats, government sources said Sunday.South Korea and the US are discussing the dispatch of F-22 and F-35B fighter jets on a rotational basis as part of efforts to boost extended deterrence against the North's threats, they said.The allies are known to be discussing the deployment of US strategic assets on a quarterly basis at US air base in Osan

　On an afternoon in February 1998, Army 1st Lt. Kim Hun was found dead inside an underground military outpost along the border with North Korea. A gunshot wound was found on the right side of his head and a 9mm Beretta pistol was near his body. 　The South Korean military determined that the then-25-year-old Army officer had committed suicide. But questions and doubts have mushroomed that he may have been murdered because of no apparent motive for suicide and evidence of a physical fight inside t

Deployment of four more Terminal High Altitude Area Defense launchers may begin as early as next week, local media reported Friday citing unnamed South Korean and US military sources. According to reports, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense and US Forces Korea are likely to transport four additional THAAD launchers, and materials required for their temporary deployment to the site in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, next week.  A THAAD launcher stationed in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Provinc

South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Friday dismissed the possibility of deploying US nuclear weapons to South Korea to deter North Korea's armed provocations."We have never thought we should redeploy US nuclear assets," a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on condition of anonymity."The government respects the global non-proliferation regime, and continues to align all its policy within that framework," the official added. South Korea`s Defense Minister Song Young-moo(f

Talk of South Korea’s nuclear armament resurfaced Thursday, after Seoul’s defense chief raised the issue in a meeting with his US counterpart.Meeting US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday, Seoul’s Defense Minister Song Young-moo floated the idea of South Korea manufacturing indigenous nuclear-powered submarines and bringing back US tactical nukes that were withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula in 1991. 　The proposal was discussed in the context of the allies’ efforts to enhance their dete

South Korea remains unchanged in its commitment to a nuclear arms-free Korean Peninsula, the foreign ministry said Thursday, apparently dismissing speculation that Seoul might be interested in the redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons on its soil in the face of a growing threat from North Korea. "Our basic stance is to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula through a complete nuclear disarmament in the North," Cho June-hyuck, foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. Foreign Mi