President Yoon Suk-yeol said Friday that North Korea violated an inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement by firing artillery shots into buffer zones earlier in the day. Between Thursday and Friday, the North flew about 10 military planes close to the border with the South, conducted artillery firings off the east and west coasts and launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the E...

South Korea will kick off a major military exercise next week to hone defense capabilities to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, Seoul officials said Friday. The annual Hoguk exercise, set for Monday to Oct. 28, has been arranged amid heightened tensions caused by North Korea's provocations, including its firing of a short-range ballistic missile and some 170 artillery shots earl...

North Korea on Friday claimed its latest ballistic missile launch was a countermeasure to the South Korean military's "provocative action" in the frontline area, issuing a warning against what it calls a "reckless" move. Earlier in the day, South Korea's military said the North fired one short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) toward the East Sea from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 1:49 a.m. "Taki...

A group of some 10 North Korean military aircraft were flying south of a special reconnaissance line set by South Korea, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Friday. Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighter jets, in response, according to the JCS. The JCS said the North Korean aircraft were detected flying about 25 kilometers north of the Military Demarcation Line in the c...

North Korea on Friday fired a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) into the East Sea and about 170 artillery shots into maritime "buffer zones" set under a 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction accord, the South Korean military said. The provocative move came after more than 10 North Korean warplanes staged a menacing flight close to the inter-Korean border, prompting the South Korean Air...

N.Korean leader says missile launches are another clear warning to enemies, urges to focus on nuclear buildup

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the test-firing of long-range strategic cruise missiles involving units operating "tactical nukes" earlier this week aimed at strengthening the country's war deterrence, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday. On Wednesday, the North fired two long-range strategic cruise missiles that flew for "10,234 seconds along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits in t...

WASHINGTON -- The United States continues to remain open to dialogue with North Korea without any preconditions, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council (NSC) said Tuesday. The remark comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country feels no need for dialogue with the US or South Korea. "Our goal is the complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and w...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a ceremony to mark the completion of building a greenhouse farm in the country's eastern province on a key party anniversary, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday. A day earlier, Kim took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province, on the occasion of the 77th founding anniversary of the rul...

WASHINGTON -- The United States' defensive actions such as joint military drills and naval exercises with South Korea do not justify North Korea's missile provocations, a state department spokesperson said Monday. The remark comes after North Korea argued its missile tests are "self-defense" actions against US threats. "We reject the notion that our defensive actions to respond to the DPRK thre...

The South Korean government cannot accept North Korea using recent military drills between Seoul and Washington as a pretext for its "unlawful" provocations, a Seoul official said Monday. The remarks by the foreign ministry official came after the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) disclosed a recent series of its military drills, including those involving the operation of a nuclear-capab...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected an exercise of tactical nuclear operation units held in order to check and assess the "war deterrent and nuclear counterattack capability" in response to recent joint military trainings by South Korea and the United States, Pyongyang's state media said Monday. Kim "guided" the drills that were conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9 while the allies were s...

The presidential National Security Council (NSC) strongly condemned North Korea's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Sunday, saying it was a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. President Yoon Suk-yeol was briefed immediately after the launch and the NSC held a meeting presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han, according to the presidential o...

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off the east coast early Sunday, marking its seventh missile launch in 15 days. The missile launches came after North Korea on Saturday publicly justified its flurry of missile test launches as a “planned self-defensive” action against US military threats and denounced the US for repositioning a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier near the Korean...

North Korea stressed Saturday that its latest missile tests are "regular and self-defense" actions against US military threats, taking issue with a UN aviation agency's condemnation of its recent ballistic missile firing. In a statement, North Korea's National Aviation Administration said, "The missile test launch by the DPRK is a regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country...