South Korea has increased its defense budget for next year by 4 percent as it moves to beef up missile defense capabilities amid growing threats from North Korea, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The government has allocated a total of 40.335 trillion won ($36.5 billion) to bolstering the country's defensive capabilities in 2017, up from 38.799 trillion won set for this year, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement."To counter the North's asymmetrical threats coming from its weapo

North Korea on Monday fired three medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the East Sea at around 12:43 p.m. to protest against the international leaders’ meeting in China and commemorate its government’s foundation, said South Korean military. According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles were fired from the country’s western region of Hwangju, North Hwanghae Province, and later fell in Japan’s air defense identification zone. The missiles were assessed to have flown some 1,000 kilome

 The US maintenance of a nuclear first strike option is because the threat of nuclear escalation helps deter large-scale conventional war or the use of chemical and biological weapons, a congressional report said.The Congressional Research Service report came as the administration of President Barack Obama is reportedly considering renouncing the pre-emptive nuclear strike option to bolster his legacy as champion of a world without nuclear weapons. The so-called "no first use" policy has unnerve

South Korea is pushing for a new law that will allow government support to be given to people living near military bases as a way to overcome public aversion to such facilities.The move comes as residents of Seongju, 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul, rose up in protest after their rural county was tapped to host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in July."At present there is no legal way for the government to compensate communities who may be adversely affected by military bases in

North Korea’s unexpected advancement in submarine launched ballistic missile program may have been aided by Chinese technology, a US expert on Korean studies said Thursday, raising suspicion that Beijing may have provided their own SLBM for Pyongyang.Bruce Bechtol, a professor of security studies and criminal justice at Angelo State University, said that the recently launched KN-11 SLBM of the North is similar in function and appearance to China’s JL-1. “The missile that the North Koreans launch

Residents and officials from Gimcheon held a meeting Thursday with Defense Minister Han Min-koo over the possible deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system adjacent to the southern city. They, however, failed to make progress.Mayor Park Bo-saeng and seven others from the city held an hour-long session with Han, during which he opposed the ministry’s option of deploying the THAAD at a Lotte-owned golf course in the adjacent Hojeon-myeon, North Gyeongsang Province.

South Korea's defense ministry on Tuesday said it will hold a regional security forum next month, with focus placed on North Korea's provocations and feasible countermeasures that can be taken.In the fifth Seoul Defense Dialogue to be held from Sept. 7-9, participants from the Asia-Pacific region will exchange their views on the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats, and joint efforts among regional countries to counter such security challenges, the Ministry of National Defense said in a

As increasing numbers of pundits and politicians here call for a nuclear-powered submarine to negate North Korea’s ballistic missile threats, some are questioning whether or not international treaties would allow Seoul’s use of nuclear technology for military use.Although South Korea is a member state of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the NPT does not appear to specifically restrict development of a nuclear-powered submarine. Lawmakers and experts attend a seminar to dis

Ruling party lawmakers have renewed calls to deploy nuclear-powered submarines on the battlefront, refueling debate about using the advanced weapons against North Korean ballistic missile threats.The communist state marked its first successful firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile last week, undermining South Korea’s resolve to neutralize threats via land-based missile defense systems.“The SLBM launch is a grave threat not only to South Korea, but also to the security of Northeast Asi