BANGKOK ― The country’s leading arms producers are poised to boast their technological might and boost their potential for future exports at a trade fair in Thailand this week. Defense & Security 2015 will kick off Monday in the Southeast Asian country’s capital for a four-day run, bringing together about 25 defense agencies and 400 military service providers from about 50 countries. The biennial event is the largest military exhibition in the region, organizers said, having grown more than 30 p

South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Friday dismissed Lockheed Martin’s claim that Seoul and Washington have started formal consultations over a possible stationing of advanced U.S. missile assets on the peninsula. Mike Trotsky, vice president of air and missile defense at the U.S. defense giant, said at a news conference in Washington on Thursday that the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system ― which the company manufactures ― is a subject of “ongoing policy discussions” between the two count

The U.S. Defense Department said Thursday no formal consultations have taken place with South Korea about the possible deployment of a THAAD missile defense battery to the country, rejecting a Lockheed Martin official's claim that discussions are already under way."We have made no final decision regarding the deployment of a U.S. THAAD unit to the Republic of Korea, nor have we had any formal consultations with the ROK government on this issue," Cmdr. Bill Urban, a U.S. Defense Department spokes

A South Korean soldier was killed in what could be a suicide with a grenade near the western border with North Korea, military officials said Thursday.The incident took place at around 5 a.m. when the private first class moved about 100 meters away from a guard post where he and his fellow soldier were on patrol duty.The 20-year-old was killed at the scene as a grenade he was holding went off soon after he moved from the guard post.Military authorities presume that the soldier pulled out the gre

The government announced Thursday it will bring in a special inspector and reinforce its auditing body to beef up its scrutiny of state defense procurement deals, which have often been fraught with corruption.The plan is part of an interim result based on the government's on-going probe into the defense procurement sector.As a succession of corruption-ridden transactions were revealed, the government launched a special investigation team a year earlier to look into suspicious procurement contrac

South Korea will reduce the number of its military generals by about a tenth starting next year, a senior government official said Thursday.The Defense Ministry has drawn up a plan to downsize the total number of generals in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps from the current level of about 440 to some 400, the official said on condition of anonymity.The plan is expected to be implemented in stages starting next year."The Defense Ministry is coordinating with the Army, Navy and Air Force

South Korea plans to launch a new project team which will take charge of the faltering fighter jet development program before the end of this year, an official from the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday."For the success of the KF-X project, which is invested with huge funds and spawned technology development controversy, the project team will be established under the wing of the head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration," the official said. The new team will be staffed wit

South Korea and the United States held working-level talks on Tuesday on how to tighten cooperation on protecting against potential cyber attacks, the Ministry of National Defense said.The third Cyber Cooperation Working Group held in Seoul discussed sharing intelligence on cyber threats and joint efforts to fend off potential attacks on the cyber space. The meeting was each headed by Park Rae-ho, director general, and U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Sean R. Filipowski."The latest mee

The government and the ruling party agreed Tuesday to conscript an additional 20,000 soldiers over the next two years, as part of efforts to steadily maintain its standing forces.The government will spend an extra budget of 60 billion won ($53 million) to recruit an additional 10,000 officers in 2016 and another 10,000 in 2017."Currently, some 250,000 men are conscripted annually and there is enough facility to accommodate an extra 10,000," Rep. Kim Sung-chan of the ruling Saenuri Party told rep

President Park Geun-hye vowed Tuesday to push ahead with the publication of "correct" history textbooks as she dismissed concern of possible distortion of the proposed books."Correcting history cannot and should not be the subject of political strife," Park said in a televised address to the National Assembly.Park's latest appeal came amid outcry from the opposition party and some liberal civic groups against the government's move to reintroduce state history textbooks for secondary school stude