South Korea will sharply increase its military budget for 2016 to enhance the readiness of its armed forces against North Korean threats, the top economic policymaker said Thursday.In a meeting with lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party in Seoul, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said the latest standoff with North Korea highlights the need to strengthen the combat readiness of troops near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, as well as to cope with the threat posed by Pyongyan

One staff sergeant has sustained a leg injury after a South Korean land mine exploded in the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.The mine exploded in the DMZ in the eastern border town of Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, around noon on Sunday as the staff sergeant stepped on it while on a patrol mission with fellow soldiers, the JCS said, without disclosing the identity of the wounded soldier.He fractured his left heel, which requires two or three month

The South Korean military Wednesday relaxed its highest-level combat readiness posture it had maintained at the border due to heightened tensions with North Korea, a military source said."The maximum alert order that had come down to the front-line military units is being downgraded," the source said.The front-line soldiers, however, will remain in a tighter readiness posture than normal in consideration of the on-going Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercise with the U.S., the source not

South Korea said Tuesday it will continue maintaining its military readiness until North Korea normalizes its front-line defense level as it takes time for the North to pull back its forward-deployed troops.  Earlier Tuesday, after four days of intensive inter-Korean talks, North Korea agreed to lift its quasi-war state of its armed forces starting at noon in return for the South's stoppage of the anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the border."Since the North has agreed to withdraw the s

A U.S. Army helicopter crash-landed here Monday, due to a failure in the tail rotor, but the accident involved no major casualties, authorities said.A helicopter for the 24th Division of the U.S. Army made an emergency landing on a hillside in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, at around 11:40 a.m. with the two pilots showing no outward sign of injury.When the rescue team arrived, the pilots, both of whom work for the U.S. Army, were waiting outside the aircraft for the rescue helicopter from U.S

South Korea and the United States appear to be in discussion over the timing of a U.S. B-52 strategic bomber and a nuclear-armed submarine's deployment to South Korea, the Defense Ministry said Monday."Keeping close tabs on the crisis situation on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea and the U.S. are flexibly reviewing the timing of the deployment of strategic U.S. military assets,"Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a regular briefing.He did not pinpoint the kind of U.S. assets under c

Last week's temporary suspension of the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise in the face of North Korean threats could raise questions about Washington's commitment to the defense of the Asian ally, a U.S. expert said.Dennis Halpin, a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University's U.S.-Korea Institute, made the point in an article to the Weekly Standard magazine on Aug. 21, 2015, saying the suspension was akin to the 1992 cancellation of the then joint exercise Team Spirit."An even momen

The United States said Sunday it is firmly committed to South Korea's security as South and North Korea were struggling in high-level talks to defuse the worst military tensions in more than two years."We are carefully monitoring the situation. We will continue to coordinate closely with the ROK and remain steadfast in our commitment to the defense of our allies," Gabrielle Price, a State Department spokeswoman, said in comments sent to Yonhap News Agency.Top security officials of the two Koreas

The military chiefs of South Korea and the United States resolved on Saturday to launch powerful counterattacks against additional provocations by North Korea, the military said as inter-Korean tension soars over the North's threats of further attacks.South Korean Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Adm. Choi Yoon-hee and his U.S. counterpart Gen. Martin Dempsey also agreed to seek various measures "to deter North Korea from launching additional threats," an official from the South Korea

South Korea and the United States have resumed a joint military exercise after a brief break in the wake of an exchange of artillery fire between the two Koreas, a U.S. official said Friday.The annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, which began Monday, "was suspended temporarily, I believe day before yesterday, in order to allow the U.S. side to coordinate with the ROK side on the actual exchange of artillery fire across the DMZ," Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear told reporters. "That