South Korea’s arms procurement agency said Thursday it will resume accepting bids from three aircraft makers in August to supply 60 fighter jets at a cost of 8.3 trillion won ($7.2 billion), a decision aimed at avoiding further delay of the project. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced the decision in a meeting presided over by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, three weeks after...

The Defense Ministry submitted a 214.5 trillion won ($192.6 billion) budget request for the 2014-2018 fiscal year to the parliament for deliberation on Thursday, which focuses on beefing up South Korea’s missile program against North Korea’s nuclear and missile weapons. The budget proposal calls for 70.2 trillion won of the total, or 13.7 percent, to be used to purchase a missile shield program,...

President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that English-dominant private middle schools should be stripped of their status as specialized institutions if they are found to be involved in admission fraud and other corruption. The remark came after Seoul’s Younghoon International Middle School was found to have accepted unqualified students in exchange for bribes. After a two-month probe, prosecutors in...

The government said Tuesday it will create programs to prevent school violence and bullying, and put them on the regular curriculum by 2017. The country has been grappling with unrelenting violence at schools, which led to a series of suicides by bullied students in 2011. In the wake of the tragic incidents, the Prime Minister’s Office set up a pan-governmental commission to deal with the issue....

A confiscated insurance product belonging to the wife of former President Chun Doo-hwan has been purchased with assets inherited from her ancestors, a lawyer representing the couple said Tuesday. As part of efforts to collect a massive fine that the former military dictator owes the state, prosecutors have seized a personal pension insurance policy worth 3 billion won ($2.68 million) that was op...

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The United States government is working to sell hundreds of advanced, medium-range, air-to-air missiles to South Korea, according to a Pentagon agency. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Friday it has notified Congress of the possible sale to South Korea of 260 AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, as well as related parts, training and l...

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Friday they proposed reviewing the transfer of wartime operational control during their talks with the U.S. counterparts since May. “We shared our thoughts with the U.S. Forces Korea commander in early May and conveyed the same message to U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel,” said Defense Ministry deputy spokesman Colonel Wee Yong-sub. Defense Minister Kim ...

Washington could use delay as leverage in negotiations over burden-sharing cost

The Pentagon's top military officer said Thursday there are "some setbacks" in efforts to get South Korea ready for the takeover of wartime operational control (OPCON) of its troops by the agreed-upon date of Dec. 1, 2015. But Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said he still supports the OPCON transition as scheduled. "From a military perspective, the ti...

Tax officials and prosecutors have launched an investigation into suspicions that assets of former President Chun Doo-hwan might be concealed in diverse insurance products under the names of his family members, relatives and close aides, industry sources said Thursday. The probe is part of intensifying efforts by the government to find concealed assets of the former president who was ordered by ...

The Defense Ministry said Thursday it would abolish its controversial promotion squad of celebrity conscripts following a series of cases of indiscipline that have undermined troop morale and public trust. The squad has been under criticism since a TV program showed several stars-turned-soldiers drinking, leaving their designated accommodation without notice, and visiting an adult massage parlor...

Officials say they requested talks with U.S. in the wake of N.K. nuclear threat