Seoul and Washington have agreed on a planning directive to develop a new operational war plan to address North Korea’s mounting threats and a changing security environment, allowing their militaries to begin the process in earnest. Chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Won In-choul and his US counterpart Gen. Mark Milley made the decision during their in-person bilateral meeting held on Wednesday afternoon (local time) at the US Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters, Ca

A senior US diplomat called for China to lend its support and join the US-led move to hold North Korea responsible for its ballistic missile launches amid growing concern over the UN Security Council’s continuous failure to take concerted actions. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield held a rare face-to-face meeting with China’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Liu Xiaoming on Wednesday in New York. “Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield emphasized the

South Korea “successfully” test-launched a homegrown solid-fuel space rocket for the first time, taking one significant step to further develop and launch microsatellites for military surveillance and reconnaissance. The state-run Agency for Defense Development said it conducted the test-firing to “verify the performance” of the solid-propellant carrier rocket developed with indigenous technologies on Wednesday at its own testing site in Taean, South Chungcheong Provinc

North Korea has been restoring access to a yet unused tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in a potential attempt to expedite a seventh nuclear weapons test, said Open Nuclear Network, a Vienna-based research institute. Commercial satellite images have shown “signs of increasing activities” since last December especially at the South Portal and the main administrative area within North Korea’s only known underground nuclear test site, according to the institute’s r

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country will develop and deploy more powerful means of attack, while seeking to bolster up its “nuclear war deterrent more expeditiously,” according to state media Monday. In an article published in Monday’s edition of the Rodong Sinmun, Kim stressed that “genuine defense capability equates to powerful attack capability” while taking a group photograph with officials, scientists, and defense industry workers who contributed

The US has continued clashing with China and Russia on how to stop North Korea from developing missile and nuclear programs and jump-start dialogue, notwithstanding Pyongyang’s launch of the purported largest intercontinental ballistic missile in four years. The UN Security Council urgently held an open meeting on North Korea for the first time since 2017 on Friday afternoon at the request of the US, Albania, France, Ireland, Norway and the UK. North Korea on Friday announced that it t

South Korea has launched a project to “drastically” improve the Air Force’s command and control system, intending to enhance the military’s capabilities to detect and respond to air-based threats and its adaptability for the future battlefield. Defense contractor Hanwha Systems has begun developing the system to upgrade the function and capabilities of the Master Control and Reporting Center, which serves as a front-line unit in air defense, the Defense Acquisition Progr

North Korea on Thursday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile after more than a four-year hiatus, breaking its self-imposed moratorium on ICBM and nuclear tests. Pyongyang launched an ICBM-class projectile that flew more than one hour and 10 minutes toward the East Sea at 2:34 p.m. from the Sunan area of the capital city Pyongyang. The ICBM flew around 1,080 kilometers at an altitude of 6200 km or higher, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that the missile is presumed to have been f

China reported that it had provided around 91,900 barrels of refined petroleum to North Korea last year, tantamount to 18 percent of the UN-mandated oil import cap, while Russia claimed that it had no longer supplied oil in the same period. The UN Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea has recently updated the total amount of refined petroleum products that were exported and transferred by Beijing and Moscow to Pyongyang last and this year. Under UNSC Resolution 2397, North Korea

The South Korean defense minister on Tuesday publicly warned of “various and overlapping difficulties” in relocating and dispersing the military departments and units on a tight schedule, noting the necessity to “minimize” security vacuum at a critical juncture. President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team on March 15 asked the Defense Ministry to come up with ways to vacate the building by the end of this month by using its existing facilities, the ministry sa

The South Korean government has issued a cybersecurity alert against North Korea’s growing cyber threat, hacking attempts during the presidential transitional period, and escalating cyberwarfare after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Korea’s Defense Ministry announced that it has increased the Cyber Protection Condition or CPCON level by one notch higher as of 9:00 a.m. on Monday as part of widespread government-level efforts. Under the raised warning, the South Korean m

The United Nations’ independent investigator on human rights in North Korea urged China and Russia to stop forcibly repatriating North Korean refugees and abide by the requirements of UN conventions forbidding refoulement. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, expressed his concerns over the perennial but weighty issue in his report which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Mar. 2

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un views US forces stationed in South Korea as a counterweight and “bulwark” against China’s “real threat” to his sovereignty, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday. The former top US diplomat underscored that a critical lesson he learned from nuclear talks with Pyongyang is Kim’s perception of the United States Forces Korea, although the Trump administration “didn’t get all the way to try to convinc

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country would launch “a large number of reconnaissance satellites” by 2025 to monitor the “hostile” military activities of the US forces and its allies in the region, state media reported Thursday. The North Korean leader laid out the plan in a rare visit to the National Aerospace Development Administration, which came after Pyongyang claimed it conducted an “important test” for developing a reconnaissance satellite o

North Korea has paved the way for resuming intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests this year, as part of the country’s actions to “reshape the regional security environment” in its favor, the US intelligence community has said. The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Monday released its report on annual worldwide threat assessment before the House Intelligence Committee’s hearing on the matter. The report assessed that Pyongyang’s

A North Korean military patrol ship retreated after breaching the disputed inter-Korean western maritime border Tuesday morning, marking the first such case since 2018, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line at 9:49 a.m. while it tracked another purportedly stray vessel that violated the NLL and crossed into South Korean waters around 15 minutes earlier, according to South Korean military officials. The patrol boat traveled about 1 kilometer south of

Satellite imagery shows “very early signs of activity” at the previously shuttered Punggye-ri nuclear test site for the first time since 2018, while a UN watchdog said North Korea appears to have continued fissile material production at its major nuclear facilities. The California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies on Monday said the commercial satellite images taken on March 4 suggest that Pyongyang has resumed construction activities at the nuclear test site i

South Korea aims to develop swarm-capable, insectlike microrobots for covert military surveillance and reconnaissance by 2027, the government-run military technology agency announced Monday. The state-led research project is the country’s first move to design and manufacture advanced, miniaturized military spy robots to prepare for future warfare with advanced technologies. The goal of the project is to develop “microrobots that can perform surveillance and reconnaissance mission

The South Korean government has been reviewing how to provide humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, but it does not consider sending lethal weapons as a feasible option, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. Ukraine recently made an official request to the South Korean government asking for humanitarian assistance and military supplies to combat Russia’s invasion. “We are currently reviewing possible ways to provide assistance at the government level,” minis

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman will make his first visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday to boost military exchange and defense industrial cooperation and attend the country’s inaugural international defense exhibition. JCS chairman Gen. Won In-choul was invited by Saudi Arabia’s Chief of the General Staff Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili for the four-day trip, the South Korean military said in a statement. This marks the first time that a South Korean JCS chairma