SEOUL, June 8 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s defense ministry said Thursday it has requested a record budget of 43.7 trillion won (US$38.7 billion) for next year, citing growing threats from North Korea and the need for reforming the South’s military under President Moon Jae-in’s campaign pledge. It represents an 8.4 percent increase from 2017. [...]
GANGNEUNG, South Korea, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) – A forest fire that broke out in Gangwon Province was finally contained Tuesday three days after it ignited and burned 320 hectares of vegetation, the size of 457 football fields. Among the emergency crews deployed to the combat the fire were some 20,000 soldiers, who instead of [...]
SEOUL, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) – The United States plans to deploy its “strategic” weapons in South Korea on a regular basis in order to thwart North Korea’s threats under an agreement between the allies, Seoul’s defense ministry said Friday. The two sides agreed to push for “measures available in all aspects including the regular [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Yonhap) – South Korea’s defense ministry announced Thursday that an advanced American missile defense system here will soon be put into “actual operation” to counter North Korea’s ballistic missile threats. Hours earlier, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), told U.S. congressmen that the THAAD system will become operational [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) – The competition to join the South Korean military, which recently heightened amid a nation-wide economic downturn and rising youth unemployment, is subsiding with the number of South Korean youth gradually declining. According to the Ministry of National Defense, there were 566,656 young applicants to South Korea’s mandatory military service [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) – Identification tags of American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War have been traded in North Korea, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday, citing the leader of a civic body seeking to improve human rights in the North. “Some people in North Korea are making inquiries about how they could [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) – South Korea’s Navy has completed the development of new tactical ship-to-ground guided missiles which would enhance its ability to strike North Korea’s key military facilities, the country’s arms procurement agency said Tuesday. South Korea will start mass-producing the missiles with two types of launch systems — inclined and vertical — [...]
SEOUL, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) – The South Korean military confirmed Monday the United States is sending a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to waters near the Korean Peninsula again due to concerns about North Korea’s provocations. The Pacific Command, based in Hawaii, announced earlier that the Carl Vinson Strike Group is on its way to the [...]
CHEONGJU, South Korea, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) – An underground facility 18 meters long, 5 meters wide, and 2 meters high was discovered this Tuesday during construction work at Juseong Middle School in Cheongju. The small tunnel had a passageway in the center for one or two people to walk through, and ten arch-formed storage [...]
SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) – The United States has begun the process of deploying an advanced missile defense system known as THAAD to South Korea to better counter growing threats by North Korea, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said Tuesday. South Korean military officials said the deployment could be completed within one or [...]