PAJU (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Army spotlighted a tactical drill conducted by one of its reconnaissance teams near the Demilitarized Zone on Wednesday amid a steady rise in cross-border provocations that were punctuated by North Korea firing off two missiles earlier in the day.The exercise was carried out by the Army unit located just a few kilometers south of the DMZ and took place one day before the first anniversary of the North Korea-planted land mine blasts that maimed two South Korean sold

North Korea's latest missile provocation will bolster the case for South Korea and the United States to place an advanced missile defense system on the peninsula as it demonstrates the threats from Pyongyang's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, Seoul's top diplomat said Wednesday.Earlier in the day, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the North test-fired a mid-range Rodong missile from the western area of the country into waters off its east coast. The U.S. later said that the No

The three opposition parties on Wednesday agreed to set up two special parliamentary panels to address an ongoing controversy over the deployment of an advanced U.S. antimissile system and reform the prosecution.The agreement was reached after the floor leaders of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and two minor parties -- the People's Party and Justice Party -- held talks over an array of pending issues, including the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery.Th

The United States will focus on upgrading the Patriot PAC-2 missile systems in South Korea to the more advanced PAC-3 anti-missile shield to better protect the Seoul metropolitan areas by 2018, the U.S. Army's senior civilian official said Tuesday."Right now, we are focusing on upgrading the Patriot system that we have here in Korea," United States Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning told Yonhap News Agency in a group interview held in the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul

South Korea's Navy chief will visit the United States to discuss ways to coordinate joint responses to North Korea's provocations, the military said Sunday.Adm. Jung Ho-sub will leave for the United States for a weeklong trip and hold talks with top leaders in the U.S. Navy, the country's Navy said.It said the chief of naval operations will meet U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, his counterpart Adm. John Richardson and head of the U.S.' Pacific fleet Scott Swift."During the talks, Jung will

South Korea will beef up its system to counter North Korea's attempts in recent years to jam GPS signals in the South, the science ministry said Friday.Under a set of comprehensive measures approved at a Cabinet meeting, the Seoul government will redouble efforts to develop technology that can deal with the North's attempts and upgrade the system, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said.Following the North's attempts to disrupt South Korea's GPS signals across the border between 20

South Korea's Marine Corps said Thursday it conducted a live-fire drill near the tense maritime border with North Korea to cope with possible military provocations. The exercise was carried out by the Northwest Island Defense Command  and involved the K-9 self-propelled artillery, Spike missiles and rocket-mounted Cobra helicopters near Baengnyeong Island, South Korea's northernmost island, and Yeongpyeong Island in preparation for a surprise attack from the North, the Marine Corps said in a sta