Army Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, the deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), was named to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the defense ministry said Wednesday, in the first reshuffle of top military officers since the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The shake-up was announced hours after North Korea's launches of three ballistic missiles into the East Sea. Lt. Gen. Park Jeong-hwan, the vice JCS chief, was named the new Army chief of staff while Lt.

Defense Ministry promises to expeditiously deliver additional nonlethal aid, but remains cautious about providing weapons

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed in the 20,000s for the second consecutive day Wednesday, down nearly 7,400 cases from a week ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic is in retreat. The country added 23,956 new infections, including 21 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,017,923, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily tally fell to a 16-week low for a Wednesday and declined 23.5 percent from a week earlier, in an apparent sign of the pandemic slow