South Korea will send a proposal to Israel this month to sell its advanced trainer jets, a government source said Saturday. “We will send a proposal to Israel within this month as the country is seeking to introduce high-end trainer jets,” the source said on condition of anonymity. The official said the government will help Israel assess the performance of the T-50 Golden Eagle trainer jets ear...

Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia to cooperate in the fields of military supplies and services on Wednesday. The agreement came three months after the two countries signed an MOU to establish a committee on bilateral cooperation in the military equipment industry on Sept. 9. The agreement was signed by Korea’s Army Major General Chun Dong-woon and Indonesian Army Logisti...

An Air Force trainer jet crashed on Monday during an exercise, killing both pilots aboard, officials said. The T-59 trainer jet for the Air Force’s 16th Fighter Wing crashed around 2:27 p.m. Monday near the unit at Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province, about 250 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the officials. They said two Air Force majors, a 34-year-old named Park Jeong-soo and a 33-y...

The Navy said on Monday that it will carry out 37 tasks next year as part of its efforts to strengthen its operational readiness. The plans were announced following the biannual commanders’ meeting held in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province. The tasks include establishing a combat-oriented human resource management system and reorganizing units according to combat functions that come under fo...

DAPA to have open bidding for surveillance drones Acquisition agency tells Washington it cannot purchase Global Hawk drones for ‘exorbitant prices’ By Song Sang-ho South Korea’s weapons acquisition agency said on Thursday that it would carry out an open bidding process for its high-profile project to acquire surveillance drones. Defense Acquisition Program Administration also said that it has...

BEIJING (AP) _ One person has died and several others have been injured in an explosion at a bank in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. A city fire and rescue official says the explosion occurred early Thursday evening outside a branch of state-owned China Construction Bank. The official says that there was no resulting fire and that the cause of the explosion is unknown. Like many Chinese bure...

The Joint Chiefs of Staff set up the operation headquarters that will oversee security issues at next year’s Nuclear Security Summit. The summit is scheduled for March 26-27 in Seoul. The meeting to be chaired by President Lee Myung-bak will bring together 50 heads of state who will discuss measures to prevent nuclear materials that can be used in acts of aggression from reaching the hands of t...

SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- The military court said Thursday it has sentenced two Marine major generals to suspended terms on charges of making false accusations against their former top commander. In a trial held Wednesday, the court handed down six-month suspended terms to the two major generals, surnamed Park and Hong. Park was charged in May with spreading what turned out to be false allegati...

The government has decided to send peacekeeping troops to South Sudan next year, sources said Thursday. The decision was made in response to requests from the United Nations made on Aug. 8. Although the decision has yet to be approved by the National Assembly, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in Busan for the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, thanked the Korean government for deci...

The Air Force is drawing criticism for not disclosing a failed live fire drill conducted in June using a $1.7 million air-to-ground missile. According to reports, the Air Force conducted a live fire drill with a SLAM-ER missile on June 15. The weapon, fired from an F-15K fighter jet, failed to reach its target and fell into the sea. The Air Force conducted a similar drill on June 17, in which t...

The top U.S. military commander in South Korea on Wednesday offered full support for South Korea in case of future North Korean provocations, an official said. Army Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), attended the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff’s assessment of its operational situations and was briefed on South Korean forces’ postures and recent movements in the...