South Korea's homegrown KF-21 fighter jet passed a provisional combat suitability evaluation earlier this week, the state arms procurement agency said Tuesday, in a key milestone ahead of its initial production phase set to begin next year. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said the evaluation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff came Monday, based on the outcome of hundreds of flight and ground tests on the jet that have proceeded for some two years. The "provisional" evalua

North Korea has resumed refurbishing a launchpad at the country’s main long-range missile and rocket launching station on the west coast since late last month, after nearly a half-year hiatus, a US think tank said Sunday. The construction activities have taken place to renovate the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the Tongchang-ri area, North Pyongan Province, according to 38 North who based its findings from analyzing recent satellite imagery. The launch site has been used to launch t

High-profile seminar has rekindled controversy over how S. Korea can address shortages in military personnel amidst demographic crisis

South Korea and the United States staged a friendship flight this week as part of a remembrance ceremony for a late US veteran who helped rescue around 1,000 orphans during the 1950-53 Korean War, officials said Friday. The flight took place Thursday over the southern island of Jeju during the memorial for US Air Force Col. Dean Hess at the Jeju Aerospace Museum, involving three South Korean KF-16 jets and two US F-16 fighters, according to South Korea's armed service. The five aircraft als

South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Thursday announced that the advantages of allowing enlisted soldiers to carry and use their mobile phones during working hours outweighed the disadvantages based on the outcomes of a previous pilot program. The military will conduct another, larger-scale pilot program targeting 20 percent of all soldiers from July to December this year. Only 5 percent were subject to the two-month test operation conducted from June to December last year. South Korean enlis

Gen. McConville calls for allies to integrate missile defenses to better counter North Korean missile threats

South Korea plans to hold a multinational maritime exercise later this month as part of an international initiative aimed at stopping transfers of weapons of mass destruction, a defense ministry official said Monday. The country plans to stage the Eastern Endeavor 23 exercise in an effort to strengthen capabilities to counter WMD proliferation when it hosts the high-level meeting of the Proliferation Security Initiative this month. "Our military is planning a combined maritime interdiction

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday said South Korea is open to trilateral strategic and nuclear planning with the United States and Japan on how to respond in the event of a North Korea’s nuclear attack. Yoon underscored that “security cooperation is more important than ever” as South Korea and Japan face common threats from North Korea, during a televised news conference following his in-person summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul. Yoon said he is open to

Yoon says Korea open to Japan's participation on Washington Declaration

A US Forces Korea F-16 fighter jet crashed into farmland near Osan Air Base on Saturday, officials said, with the pilot having escaped safely and no civilian casualties reported. According to local firefighting and police authorities, the accident occurred at about 9:30 a.m. in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul. The jet crashed into a field and caught fire, resulting in the aircraft being mostly destroyed. But no casualties or civilian damage were reported as there were no houses fortun

South Korea and the United States will begin their largest-ever combined live-fire exercise this month on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of their alliance and the 75th anniversary of the South Korean military's establishment, Seoul's defense ministry said Saturday. The allies are set to stage the drills five times between May 25 and June 15 at Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon, 52 kilometers northeast of Seoul, according to the ministry. This year's drills will be th

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is pursuing organizational changes in the direction of reducing its personnel by 10 percent, an informed source said Thursday, amid the country's push to create a slimmer yet more advanced military. Through the changes, some of the JCS' reduced personnel are expected to be assigned to a new body that will be in charge of cutting-edge military assets, according to the source. The JCS is known to be considering measures to create a new org

South Korea's military has identified the remains of another soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, about 13 years after their discovery in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, the defense ministry said Thursday. The ministry's excavation team confirmed the remains belonged to Staff Sgt. Jeon Bok-hui, after it conducted DNA analysis using a sample from his younger brother. Border troops retrieved the remains in Cheorwon, 71 kilometers northeast of Seoul, in October

WASHINGTON -- An Ohio-class nuclear-powered, ballistic missile submarine will be making a visit to South Korea under an agreement reached with South Korea last week to bolster US deterrence against North Korean threats, a Pentagon spokesperson reaffirmed Tuesday. Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, however, declined to comment when asked if the Ohio-class submarine will be equipped with nuclear weapons. "It will be an Ohio-class SSBN model," the spokesperson said when asked what class submarine wi

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup has touted a new Seoul-Washington security document as what can be called the allies' "second" mutual defense treaty given that it entails America's reinforced deterrence commitment to the Asian ally. Lee made the remarks in a contribution to the local daily Maeil Business News Korea on Monday, referring to the Washington Declaration that President Yoon Suk Yeol and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, adopted during a White House summit l