WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The United States is not considering a revision of the legal guidelines on the status of its 28,000 troops in South Korea, the nominee to become a top U.S. defense official said Thursday, despite a renewed call for it in South Korea. Mark W. Lippert, nominee for assistant secretary of defense fo Asian and Pacific security affairs, said in a Senate confirmation hearing ...

A missing U.S. military rifle was found Thursday near a local air base, where President Lee Myung-bak departed aboard a presidential jet on the same day for Indonesia to attend a regional summit, an official said Friday. The U.S. Forces Korea official said a civilian found the M4 rifle on Thursday on a road near Seoul Airport, located in Seongnam, just south of the capital city. The discovery ap...

The United States is not considering a revision of the legal guidelines on the status of its 28,000 troops in South Korea, the nominee to become a top U.S. defense official said Thursday, despite a renewed call for it in South Korea. Mark W. Lippert, nominee for assistant secretary of defense fo Asian and Pacific security affairs, said in a Senate confirmation hearing that Washington wants cont...

Two sides to discuss possible change to regulations for American soldiers The Korea-U.S. SOFA Joint Committee will meet on Nov. 23 to discuss issues regarding custody of U.S. military personnel suspected of committing crimes in Korea. The SOFA, or status of forces agreement, outlines the conditions applied to U.S. military personnel stationed in Korea and their dependents. The agreement include...

The North Korean military conducted two anti-ship missile tests in the West Sea in October and this month. “The North Korean military test fired air-to-ship missiles twice, in October and earlier this month, using an IL-28 bomber jet over the West Sea,” an unnamed government official was quoted as saying by a local news agency. The official also said that the South Korean military has been stre...

The Defense Ministry said Tuesday it will make a donation to victims of recent earthquakes in Turkey, a close military partner for South Korea. The ministry said its employees and those working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other branches of the service collected about 26 million won ($23,090) in relief aid for Turkey. On Oct. 23 and again last Thursday, Van province in the eastern part of t...

The Cabinet passed a bill that would force those convicted of cheating on their physical to avoid military duty into mandatory service. Under the revised enforcement ordinance for the military service law, those who receive prison terms for injuring themselves or cheating at physical tests to avoid their mandatory military duty will no longer be eligible for military exemption. The bill also wo...

Air Force in-house programmers to set up second line of missile defense The Air Force will independently upgrade core software for its guided missile system against North Korea in efforts to save money and prevent a possible technology leak, the state arms acquisition agency said Monday. It and Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration have been in talks with the U.S. government over t...

South Korea plans to build barracks on Baengnyeongdo by 2013 for U.S. troops and others to be augmented in case of a North Korean provocation on the northwestern border island, a military source said Sunday. Budget bills on the construction of barracks for some 160 troops have been submitted to the National Assembly, according to the source. The plan was conceived as Seoul is striving to bolste...

Since North Korea shelled Yeonpyeongdo a year ago, South Korea has adopted a more aggressive military strategy and beefed up its capabilities to defend the northwestern border islands with more personnel and high-tech military equipment. The Nov. 23 attack was another stark reminder that Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war, prompting exhaustive soul-searching from South Korea over how ...

BUSAN -- South Korean Navy vessels joined ships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) near Busan on Saturday to practice conducting combined search and rescue operations. The exercise aims to help sailors hone their skills and strengthen cooperative ties in hopes of enhancing operational effectiveness in emergency situations, local military sources said. The naval maneuver has been...

The top U.S. military intelligence official has been in Seoul for annual consultations with his South Korean counterpart and other officials on North Korea, a Defense Ministry official said Thursday. Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, visited the Defense Intelligence Command where he received a briefing on the situation in North Korea on Wednesday, the ...

South Korea is going through an "identify crisis" again over its security dependence on the United States, especially following North Korea's two deadly attacks in 2010, an alliance politics expert said Wednesday. "I think it's fair to say there is an identify crisis in South Korea," William Tow, professor at Australian National University (ANU), said at a roundtable in Washington. "The identity...

The U.S. Forces Korea on Tuesday denied that there is gang presence in its personnel stationed here. Its denial came after an October report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed that members from 53 gangs have been enlisted in U.S. installations around the world, including those in South Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany and Japan. “We have checked with the Korean national police, (t...