The Joint Chiefs of Staff opened its office building Wednesday. This is the first time since the JCS was formed in 1948 that the organization will operate from an independent building.Since the 1970s, the JCS had shared the building occupied by the Ministry of National Defense. Before that the JCS had moved around from the Defense Ministry to Cheong Wa Dae’s satellite building in Jongno-gu and other government buildings. The 187.5 billion won ($166 million) building consists of 10 above-ground f

The Ministry of National Defense’s plans to reorganize the military’s top command structure have once again run into opposition from retired generals.On Wednesday, the association of former top military officers from the three branches of the military distributed a statement opposing the plans to the members of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, saying that the proposed changes will be ineffective and concentrate too much power on one individual. Under the Defense Ministry’s pla

South Korea and Cambodia have agreed to share military supplies in peacekeeping and rescue operations as part of efforts to expand military ties between the two sides, the defense ministry here said Tuesday.Lee Seon-chul, the head of the South Korean defense ministry‘s logistics management bureau, and Army Lt. Gen. Chau Phirun, the chief supply officer at Cambodia’s defense ministry, signed the memorandum of understanding on the bilateral logistics cooperation in a meeting in Seoul.Under the agr

By Choi He-suk The South Korean military plans to develop an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, sources said Tuesday.According to reports, the military is pushing plans for a 500 billion won ($442.7 million) project to develop unmanned combat aircraft along with unmanned reconnaissance aerial vehicles.“A project for developing unmanned combat aircraft is in the works along with the unmanned reconnaissance aerial vehicle project. If development goes under way now, deployment could be possible in 202

South Korea and the U.S. are in talks to create a new joint military operation body to take over some key functions of a soon-to-be-dissolved joint military command, a high-ranking government source said Sunday.The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command has served as a command structure for joint operation of military forces of the two allies since the 1950-53 Korean War.Both agreed to dissolve the CFC as South Korea plans to retake wartime operational control of its troops from the U.S. in 20

South Korea will conduct military exercises in waters near the easternmost islets of Dokdo later this month to strengthen its defense amid Japan’s renewed territorial claims, a military official said Thursday.The biannual exercise comes at a time when diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Tokyo rose after Japan reiterated its claim to Dokdo in its latest defense white paper, which drew strong protest from Seoul.The last drill was held in February. Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the E

The defense ministries of South Korea and China will establish a hotline communications channel, the Ministry of National Defense announced Tuesday. The nations also signed a memorandum of understanding to increase exchange between their militaries during the second strategic defense talks held in Beijing. The MOU includes clauses regarding working-level talks between defense policy specialists, cooperative search and rescue missions, and overseas humanitarian missions, the Defense Ministry said

South Korea has selected British defense firm BAE Systems Inc. for a 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion) project to upgrade the country’s aging KF-16 fighter jets, the state arms procurement agency said Tuesday.The multi-year project calls for upgrading a total of 134 KF-16 fighters by improving mission computers and operating systems with the latest versions and by replacing current radars with active electronically scanned array, also known as AESA, to double the detection range by 2021, according

The U.S. secretary of defense confirmed that the U.S. is set on handing over the wartime operational control to South Korea as scheduled in 2015, despite the Center of Strategic and International Studies’ recommendations to the contrary.The report submitted by the Washington-based bipartisan think tank to the Congress last week suggested that the wartime operational control handover and the fate of the Combined Forces Command should be decided after related issues have been thoroughly assessed.

A report on South Korean defense policies showed that North Korean defectors wish to serve their military service in the South, which is banned under the military law. The quarterly report of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-funded defense think tank, said that seven out of eight North Koreans who fled the reclusive state between 2003 and 2010 want to enlist in the army. “I feel left out when thinking that the South Korean government does not trust the defectors although they sa

The military is facing personnel shortages in 19 of the 65 fields to be staffed by type-two specialist sergeants, data showed Tuesday. Type-two specialist sergeants are selected before the start of national service, and those selected serve an additional 15 months as sergeants after the end of the mandatory term. The system, along with that for type-one specialty sergeants, was introduced in 2008 to compensate for the personnel shortages caused by the shortening of the duration of the national s

Combined Forces Command will hold the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise from Aug. 20-31.“Ulchi Freedom Guardian is a key exercise to strengthen the readiness of Republic of Korea and U.S. forces,” Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the Combined Forces Command, was quoted as saying in a statement. “It is based on realistic scenarios and enables us to train our essential tasks with the whole government.”In this year’s exercise, about 30,000 U.S. personnel, including 3,000 troops based outsid

South Korea's arms procurement agency said Tuesday it has approved bid proposals by three foreign defense companies for a multi-million dollar fighter jet project and will start flight tests from next week.The F-15 Silent Eagle by U.S. firm Boeing, the F-35A by another American company Lockheed Martin, and the Eurofighter by Europe-based multinational defense group EADS are in the running to win t

The South Korean military said Sunday it would introduce smartphone applications to enhance operational capabilities.The military developed nine applications, and is planning to prepare security tools for them by the end of this year before deciding which ranks will get the smartphones.According to the military, the applications were developed by a contractor under the program for establishing a pilot system for using smartphones for military purposes. The applications are to be distributed to s