The North Korean Army has informed the United Nations Command of plans to fortify the shared border with the South, Seoul defense authorities said Wednesday, confirming a Pyongyang state agency report earlier the same day. The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said it would completely cut off roads and railways connecting to South Korea and build fortifications along the border in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday. The KPA said it had communicated t

South Korea’s national defense minister on Tuesday said North Korean troops appear to have been killed or wounded in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun told lawmakers on this day that reports of North Korean troop casualties in the Ukraine war are believed to be true based on the ministry’s findings. He was speaking about a report in the Ukrainian news agency Kyiv Post that six North Korean officers were among those killed by a missile strike in

South Korea’s once prestigious military academies are fast losing appeal for potential candidates, with about two in three applicants dropping out despite qualifying for final interviews this year. Despite an increase in applicants to academies of all three armed services over the first three years of Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration in 2022-24, the steep rise in dropout rates during the admissions process reveals the underlying challenges the South Korean military faces recruiting for

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 육·해·공군사관학교 필기 시험에 합격하고도 면접 응시를 포기하는 비율이 윤석열 정부 들어 뚜렷한 상승세를 보인 것으로 확인됐다. 올해 육해공사 1차 필기 시험 합격자 중 면접 등 2차 시험에 응시하지 않은 인원이 10명 중 7명을 넘어섰다. 병사 월급이 인상되고 초급 간부와의 급여 격차가 크게 줄어들면서 장교 복무 선호도가 떨어진 여파로 분석된다. 7일 국방부가 박선원 더불어민주당 의원실에 제출한 ‘최근 3년 사관학교 응시율’ 자료에 따르면, 올해 육군사관학교 1차 합격자 3,471명 중 2차 응시 인원은 780명에 불과했다. 응시를 포기하는 비율이 2022년 60.1%, 2023년 66.4%에서 2024년 77.5%로 2년새 17%p 가까이 상승한 것이다. 해군사관학교 미응시 비율은 2022년 58.1%, 2023년 60.4%에서 2024년 72.4%로 늘었다. 2022년 48.9%, 2023년 50.5%이

The wife of President Yoon Suk Yeol could once again take center stage during the yearly National Assembly audit over high-profile allegations that first surfaced late last year that she received a Dior bag during an encounter with a pastor in late 2022. The Democratic Party of Korea has warned it would make “the Dior bag scandal” and other allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee the main theme of its audit efforts. The main opposition floor leader Rep. Park Chan-dae said in a

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration is falling behind legal standards for gender equality in all of its policy committees, according to agency data seen by The Korea Herald. According to the data submitted to Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Boo Seung-chan’s office, two of the agency’s three committees -- the committees for defense acquisition program promotion and airworthiness certificate review -- had no women in 2023. In the same year, the committee for d

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 방위사업청 소관 모든 위원회 구성에서 여성이 차지하는 비율이 아예 없거나 법정 기준에 크게 미달하는 것으로 나타났다. 국방부 장관이 위원장인 방위사업추진위원회는 최근 3년 내내 단 한 명의 여성위원도 위촉하지 않았다. 6일 국회 국방위원회 소속 부승찬 더불어민주당 의원실이 방사청으로부터 제출받은 ‘위원회 성별 참여 현황’ 자료에 따르면, 지난 해 방추위· 방위산업기술부호위원회· 감항인증심의위원회 3곳 모두 위촉직 여성비율이 법정 기준인 40%에 미치지 못했다. 2021년부터 지난 3년간 방추위의 위촉직 6명 중 여성위원은 아무도 없었다. 같은 기간 방위산업기술보호위원회와 감항인증심의위원회의 여성위원 비율은 감소했다. 방위산업기술보호위원회의 경우 2021· 2022년 5명 중 2명으로 40%였던 여성위원 비율이 2023년에는 1명으로 줄어 20%로 하락했다. 감항인증심의위원회도 2021·

Georgy Zinoviev, the Russian ambassador in Seoul, told South Korean lawmakers on Wednesday that although the relations between the two countries were going through a difficult time, he believed they would improve in the future. “I would like to take this opportunity to say that even though South Korea and Russia are going through a rough patch at this moment, I believe there is still a lot of potential for expanding cooperation and resuming dialogue in the future,” he said, speaking

North Korea once again sent another wave of balloons carrying trash toward the South on Wednesday, the day after a massive military parade was held in Seoul to commemorate the Armed Forces Day. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said at around 5:19 a.m. that North Korea was flying objects believed to be trash balloons, which may move toward Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province given the wind direction. The JCS advised residents of the affected areas to be wary of falling objects an

President Yoon Suk Yeol said the Kim Jong-un regime would face its destruction should it attempt a nuclear attack at the Armed Forces Day ceremony on Tuesday, in a warning accompanied by a rare showcase of powerful weapons targeting North Korea. “If North Korea ever tries to use a nuclear weapon, it will be met with a decisive and overwhelming response from our armed forces and alliance with the US. And that will be the day its regime ends,” he said. The warning from the president ca

The drop in Thai tourists to Korea as a result of tight screening and the large population of Thais working in Korea illegally should be addressed simultaneously, according to Tanee Sangrat, who began his mission as Thai ambassador to South Korea in April. In an interview with The Korea Herald, Sangrat said that for Korea to see a rebound in tourism from Thailand, some efforts were needed on his country’s part to reduce the number of Thais overstaying their visas. “We are doing our

North Korean artwork subject to United Nations sanctions and restrictions under South Korean laws is being sold on a major South Korean portal site, according to Rep. Park Choong-kwon on Monday. Some dozen pieces of artwork produced by Mansudae, a North Korean state-sponsored art studio in Pyongyang, are on sale on Naver, the South Korean ruling party lawmaker said. He said the art studio, founded in the 1970s by then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, was placed under UN sanctions in 2017 for bei

South Korea should make it easier for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s elites to switch sides and stir change, Lee Il-gyu, who was Pyongyang’s counselor of political affairs in Cuba, said Friday. “South Korea should engage not only North Korea’s general public but also its elites to elicit change from within North Korea,” he said at a forum hosted by the Institute for National Security Strategy, a National Intelligence Service think tank, at the National Assembly i

South Korea’s spy agency considers North Korea publicizing leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to a previously undeclared uranium enrichment facility earlier this month to be a “US election-conscious move,” Rep. Lee Seong-kweon of the National Assembly intelligence committee said Thursday. “Kim’s visits to facilities related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are rarely ever disclosed this way. The spy agency said the US presidential election was likely the

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 더불어민주당이 미국 대통령 선거를 앞두고 태스크포스(TF)를 꾸려 ‘야당 외교’를 위한 선제적 전략 구상에 돌입했다. 이재명 민주당 대표는 TF에 “한반도 평화를 최우선의 가치로 두는 민주당의 일관된 외교안보 노선에 따라 대비해달라”는 취지의 당부를 한 것으로 전해졌다. 24일 코리아헤럴드 취재를 종합하면, 민주당의 싱크탱크(Think Tank)인 민주연구원은 미국 대선과 관련한 논의를 위해 전문가들과 외교통일위원회· 국방위원회· 산업통상자원중소벤처기업위원회 등 유관 상임위원회의 의원들이 참여하는 TF를 결성했다. 미국의 차기 행정부 출범 이후 상황에 선제적으로 대비하기 위함이다. TF는 민주연구원 수석연구위원을 단장으로 한 전문 연구진과 김영배· 이재정· 위성락·김병주· 곽상언 의원 등으로 구성됐다. 이중 위성락·김병주 의원