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

  Top military officers salute during the funeral at a military hospital in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday for the four Marines killed in Monday’s shooting rampage. (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)Bodies of four soldiers laid to rest at Daejeon National CemeteryMilitary investigators on Wednesday morning arrested a Marine private first class on charges of complicity in Monday’s shooting ra

Poor ammunitions management partly blamed for death of 4 marinesThe Marine who went on a shooting rampage Monday, killing four fellow soldiers, had been treated like an outcast on his base on Ganghwa Island, military officials said Tuesday.The 19-year-old corporal, identified only by his surname Kim, said in writing, “I feel a lot of pain. I want to die. The practices of beating and ostracizing a

A shooting spree by a 19-year-old Marine corporal on Monday has left four soldiers dead, the Marine Corps said.The incident took place inside a barrack of the Marine Second Division on Ganghwa Island off the west coast at around 11:50 a.m., officials said. The corporal, identified only by his surname Kim, opened fire with a K-2 rifle. Kim was captured after the incident. A grenade also exploded at

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

South Korea will begin mass-producing the Korean-made K-11 airburst assault rifle in November after having addressed problems associated with its fire control, the state weapons acquisition agency said Monday.“We have addressed the issues that have been raised in the process of its mass production. We will produce just small amounts and test them to check whether they are suitable for field operat

Korea America Friendship Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the Korea-U.S. relationship, held its annual dinner party in Seoul on Thursday to celebrate its 20th anniversary and appreciate the service of U.S. troops here.The Korea America Friendship Night was attended by some 800 people including U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, 8th U.S. Army Commander Lieut. Gen. John D. Jo

Ministry seeks to hold nationwide academic tests onlineThick textbooks weighing on students’ shoulders may disappear in four years. The government seeks to convert all paper textbooks into digital versions by 2015, the Education Ministry said Wednesday.Using smartphones, tablet PCs and smart televisions, school students of all ages will be able to view the content of existing textbooks, ministry o

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

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs on Wednesday held a ceremony marking the ninth anniversary of a naval skirmish between the two Koreas, which resulted in several casualties on both sides.Some 2,000 people, including top military officials and members of the bereaved families, attended the ceremony at the Navy’s Second Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. Prime Minister Kim

Thirteen senior officials of the state weapons acquisition agency will take early retirement later this month as the agency strives to slim-down its organization and improve its efficiency, officials said Tuesday.The personnel reorganization was the largest in scale since the establishment of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration in January 2006, they said.Most of the officials who chose

The Army signed an accord with Korea University on Tuesday to establish a department for nurturing cyber warfare specialists as South Korea strives to bolster its capabilities to deal with North Korean cyber attacks.The ceremony to sign the agreement was attended by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Kim Sang-ki and Korea University President Kim Byung-chul.It is the first time for the military to establish

South Korea will dispatch 10 members of its Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team to the United Arab Emirates next month to help train troops in the Middle East country, an official at the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.They will join the 130-member contingent, which was deployed there in January following the UAE’s request last August that South Korea help it nurture world-class special war

The Ministry of National Defense will implement a stringent inspection system next month as the government strives to root out corruption and enhance public trust, officials said Monday.From October, it will also apply the property registration rule to more military officials in a bid to boost the anti-corruption drive.Such measures came as some 120 officials from the ministry, the Joint Chiefs of

The Samhwa Mutual Savings Bank, one of the local banks troubled with capital shortages, was declared bankrupt Friday.The savings bank filed for bankruptcy on May 19. In January, the Financial Services Commission suspended the bank for six months during moves to weed out unviable banks that failed to meet regulatory capital requirements.The ill-fated bank has been criticized for its allegedly illic

Robert Hoyt (right), a Korean War veteran, and his grandson Quentin Backstrom pose for a photo after their visit to the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday.(Chung Hee-cho/The Korea Herald)PAJU ― Although it is his first visit to South Korea, Quentin Backstrom, a 16-year-old student from Philadelphia, is quite familiar with the country through the vivid memories of his grandfath

Public servants refrain from drinking, dining out, golfingThese days, the staff cafeteria of the Financial Supervisory Service is jam-packed with its employees.They are reluctant to eat out for fear they could also be accused of corruption, as officialdom sees a spate of scandals.“More and more of us opt to eat at the cafeteria on the 20th floor rather than going outside. Since corruption allegati

Attention is being drawn to the code of conduct for civil servants as a recent string of corruption cases involving public officials has upset the public, seriously tarnishimg the government’s vision of a “fair society.”Critics argue that while the intention of the code that prohibits officials from receiving expensive meals and other pricy entertainment services from people they meet on official

Defense chiefs of South Korea and Sweden discussed ways to enhance bilateral military exchanges and cooperation in the defense industry during their talks in Seoul on Tuesday, officials at the Ministry of National Defense said.Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and his Swedish counterpart Sten Tolgfors also discussed regional security issues including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and its missile dev

Two rockets fell inside an Afghanistan base where South Korean aid workers and troops were stationed on Monday night, but there were no injuries, Foreign Ministry officials said Tuesday.The attack is the 10th this year, apparently targeting the base in Charikar City in the northern Afghan province of Parwan. In a previous attack on May 30, one rocket fell just outside the base.The rockets fell nea