U.S. President Barack Obama warned Saturday that Washington was prepared to use military force to defend its allies, while ratcheting up pressure on North Korea to renounce its nuclear ambitions. During his visit to Yongsan Garrison, the U.S. military headquarters in central Seoul, he also underscored that the South Korea-U.S. alliance would not waver with “each bout of Pyongyang’s attention-see...

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama paid a joint visit to the command center for joint military operations between the two allies on Saturday in a symbolic move underscoring their unity in deterring North Korea. It marks the first time for the leaders of South Korea and the U.S. to make a joint visit to the Combined Forces Command (CFC) since it was established i...

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe (Yonhap) Japan is ready to dispatch its Maritime Self-Defense Force and coast guard to assist the search-and-rescue operation for the sunken ferry Sewol, Japanese Defense Minister Isunori Onodera said Friday. “We have not been asked by (the Korean government), but once requested, we are ready to make a speedy move,” Onodera told reporters, Kyodo News reported....

Global arms investment in 2013 fell by 1.9 percent from the year before, mainly due to a sharp drop in military spending by the United States, a Swedish arms watchdog said Monday. According to the annual report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, countries worldwide spent $1.7 trillion on boosting their militaries. The annual budget of the U.S. came first with $640 billion, ...

Kim Jong-sung, chief of UAV system development at the Agency for Defense Development, announces the interim results of its probe into three drones, presumably from North Korea, at the agency in Daejeon on Friday. (Joint Press Corps) Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Friday that the three drones, recently found in frontline regions, were “definitely” from North Korea, citing circumstantial evidence i...

The South Korean Army’s unmanned surveillance aircraft Songgolmae takes off for a test flight at an Army base in Yangju, north of Seoul, Tuesday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald) For security authorities, prudence and restraint are the most crucial virtues ― particularly when they are dealing with an unpredictable, provocative adversary like North Korea. But this week, South Korea’s Defense Mini...

Korea, U.S. consider including anti-drone steps in joint operational plans

South Korea is pushing to buy about 10 low-altitude radars from Israel to better detect small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and thereby counter threats posed by North Korean drones, military officials said Wednesday. The military has been hastily preparing measures to step up its surveillance capability, in the wake of the discovery of three small UAVs near the tensely guarded border with Nort...

Calls are rising for disciplinary action against military leaders responsible for failing to block apparent North Korean drone activities, which have revealed vulnerabilities in the country’s air defense. Ruling and opposition party lawmakers alike denounced the military for its ill-preparedness after three drones, presumably from the communist state and used for espionage purposes, were found i...