South Korean and U.S. Air Forces have recently reached an agreement to stage an aerial refueling exercise on a regular basis here, using a U.S. in-flight tanker, a military source said Monday.The first joint refueling exercise in which the U.S. is to mobilize its KC-135 tanker currently based in Okinawa, Japan, is expected to take place in the latter half of this year, the source said.“Although ou

Defense minister orders full-scale inspection of all military unitsAlthough his son will not join the military for another 10 years, Moon Young-sook is already apprehensive that his boy could suffer the “appalling” human rights abuses said to be widespread there.“I feel more worried than before as it is said that such abuses are still taking place in many units, not in just a few. When we heard of

Prosecutors are investigating 11 people on charges of establishing an anti-state organization under a directive from North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, officials said Sunday.Among them was a member of the Korea Higher Education Research Institute, which spearheaded a nationwide campaign to halve college tuitions, triggering criticism that the probe aims to stifle voices against a government poli

The Ministry of National Defense has drawn up a 33.48 trillion won ($32.43 billion) budget plan for next year with a focus on making the military “truly combat-ready.”The ministry submitted its budget proposal to the Finance Ministry on June 30. The planned budget is 6.6 percent higher than the 2011 budget of 31.4 trillion won.“In broad terms, we can say that we have significantly increased the bu

A South Korean antipiracy unit operating off the coast of Somalia on Sunday morning repelled three ships suspected of trying to seize a Panamanian-registered chemical freight vessel, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.The Cheonghae Unit received an emergency satellite call from the 17,000-ton Azalea belonging to South Korea’s major shipping firm STX POS at around 1 a.m., JCS officials said.The

Some 15,000 men who have delayed their mandatory military service for the last several years will be notified to take another physical checkup next year under a 2007 law, the military recruitment agency said Wednesday. Under the military draft law, young men are to go through another checkup five years after taking the first one. Before the law was enacted in January 2007, men had taken only one c