North Korea claimed Monday that the United States compelled the country to adopt a first-use nuclear doctrine and vowed to continue military buildup in a tit-for-tat move against the US’ “hostile policy.” At the UN General Assembly, the claim was immediately dismissed by South Korea, but North Korea repeatedly clarified that it no longer seeks to discuss Korean Peninsula affairs with the Yoon Su...

South Korea and the United States began four days of combined naval exercises, including a US aircraft carrier, off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast on Monday to enhance allied military capabilities against North Korean threats. They are the first such drills staged in South Korean waters since 2017. “The exercises were designed to demonstrate the South Korea-US alliance’s strong will to count...

Cross-border cargo trains between North Korea and China have resumed operations after a five-month hiatus, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday. The confirmation came after South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that a freight train loaded with supplies was seen departing from the Chinese border city of Dandong and crossing the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge into Sinuiju in North Ko...

Peace through strength The USS Ronald Reagan has been forward deployed to Yokoshuka in Japan, which is the US 7th Fleet area of operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region since 2015. Rear Adm. Donnelly also underscored the importance of the strong partnership between South Korea and the US in maintaining the security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, when asked about h...

North Korea’s Defense Ministry said that the country has never supplied weapons to Russia and denounced the US for spreading “groundless” rumors, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. An unnamed vice director general of the General Bureau of Equipment at North Korea’s Defense Ministry issued a pronouncement on Wednesday to refute the US’ recent public statements on Russia’s...

The United States will respond to arms supplies by North Korea and Iran to Russia with further sanctions to block Russia’s efforts to evade economic sanctions to illegally replenish its depleted stocks of weapons, senior US government officials said Tuesday. At a congressional hearing, US senators and senior officials at the Treasury and Justice departments took note of Russia’s pursuit to procu...

A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will stage military exercises with South Korean warships in South Korean waters later in the month for the first time since 2017 to strengthen the alliance’s readiness and deterrence against North Korea, South Korea’s Navy announced on Monday. The US Navy’s USS Ronald Reagan, a 100,000-metric ton nuclear-powered supercarrier, and its strike group will arrive...

South Korea and the United States warned of an “overwhelming and decisive response” to any nuclear attack by North Korea at high-level strategic talks on Friday, denouncing North Korea’s first-use nuclear doctrine as an “escalatory and destabilizing messaging.” The two countries held the meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group between South Korean and US vice ministers...

South Korea and the United States agreed to enhance cooperation in defense science and technology to counter emerging threats and establish a high-level dialogue channel to regularly discuss the issue, South Korea’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday. South Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul separately met US Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu and Unders...

South Korea and the United States will discuss “concrete and stronger measures” to counter North Korea’s existential and mounting threats and enhance the viability of the US extended deterrence at the upcoming high-level strategic talks, senior South Korean officials said. The two countries will hold a vice ministerial-level meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group, or ...

North Korea has operated and expanded its key uranium enrichment facility at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Monday, reiterating North Korea’s readiness to conduct a nuclear test. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the agency has observed multiple indications that suggest North Korea’s...

South Korea’s unification minister on Thursday proposed to North Korea to hold inter-Korean talks over reunions of separated families at an early date, hoping that the meeting could serve as an opportunity to lift inter-Korean relations from a yearslong deadlock. Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said the Yoon Suk-yeol government hopes to hold a face-to-face inter-Korean meeting between the aut...

Right of self-defense Apart from trilateral security cooperation, the Yoon government mainly pursues a two-pronged strategy to counter North Korea’s existential nuclear and missile threats. In a nutshell, South Korea aims to enhance the viability of the US extended deterrence and strengthen its independent military capabilities. “We seek to intensively pour our resources, including defense budg...

South Korean and Japanese vice defense ministers will hold a rare in-person meeting this week in Seoul for the first time in six years and discuss long pending issues, including the radar lock-on dispute in 2018, and defense and security cooperation. Japanese Vice Minister of Defense for International Affairs Masami Oka will visit Seoul to participate in the three-day Seoul Defense Dialogue 2022...

South Korea has begun the process of providing full-time, unfettered overland access to a military base that hosts the US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic missile system in earnest as of Sunday. The move is part of the South Korean president’s pledge to “normalize” the operation of the THAAD base in Soseong-ri, Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, by the end of Augus...