The Air Force’s current stockpile of precision-guided weapons would run out in just three to 10 days should a war break out, a ruling party lawmaker has recently said, spawning concerns over the country’s capacity for wartime aerial operations. Its stock of weapons including GBU-24 bunker busters, Korea GPS-guided bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munitions will run out before the end of the 30-day ...

Critics say field commanders have limited authority to handle emergencies The military directive by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin to “act first and report later” is not applicable to air-to-ground operations, officials said Sunday, triggering concerns that this could limit the Air Force’s ability to handle emergency situations. According to military procedure, only the chairman of the Joint Chi...

Navy soldiers have been more exposed to physical abuse compared to other military forces over the past several years, a lawmaker said Friday, calling for measures to curb violence in the barracks. A total of 4,670 cases of violence took place in the Navy between January 2005 and June this year, Rep. Kim Jang-soo of the ruling Grand National Party said, citing a Navy report submitted for a parlia...

Harassment and abuse by senior officers still rampant: lawmakers There will be a serious shortage of military sailors and pilots as the country is stepping up efforts to secure scores of new high-tech warships and aircraft to enhance national defense, a lawmaker claimed Thursday. Based on parliamentary inspection reports from the Navy, Rep. Seo Jong-pyo of the main opposition Democratic Party s...

Suspicion has been raised the Defense Ministry underreported the amount of money it would have to pay for a U.S. military relocation project in an apparent move to circumvent public criticism. A diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks indicated that the ministry of the former Roh Moo-hyun government in 2007 significantly downplayed the amount it would shoulder for the relocation of the U.S. Force...

No money set aside for project to purchase presidential airplane The government has earmarked some 33.15 trillion won ($28.13 billion) for the 2012 defense budget, up 5.6 percent from this year’s budget, aiming to make the military “truly combat-ready,” officials said Tuesday. It seeks to set aside 23.02 trillion won for the operation of the military power and 10.1 trillion won for enhancing de...

More than twice as many South Korean soldiers and officers have been charged with violating the anti-communist National Security Law in the current conservative government than in the previous liberal administration, a report showed Tuesday. The law strictly prohibits distribution of publications praising the North or all activities sympathetic to the communist state. South Korea is technically ...

The state military acquisition agency has continued to sign contracts with local firms with a track record of irregularities, making it difficult to stamp out corruptive practices in defense deals, a ruling party lawmaker said Monday. Rep. Chung Mi-kyung of the Grand National Party said during the parliamentary inspection that since 2006 when the Defense Acquisition Program Administration opened...

U.S. surveillance planes cost almost five times the amount first budgeted for South Korea is seriously considering halting its plan to purchase Global Hawk surveillance planes as their price has more than doubled, a local daily reported Monday. Seoul has sought to deploy four of the high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles by 2015 with a budget of 450 billion won ($379 million). But the asking pr...

Contractors employed to deliver oil to the military have stolen hundreds of thousands of liters over the past three years, a report revealed Monday, raising concerns about lax fuel management amid soaring energy costs. Tanker drivers siphoned off 462,000 liters of oil between 2009 and the beginning of September in transit from the country's three oil companies -- GS Caltex, S-Oil and SK Energy, ...

SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- Deploying unmanned surveillance aircraft is the most important task among the Army‘s armament plans to better monitor North Korea’s military activities, according to a lawmaker on Monday. It was the second time that the Army placed the deployment of spy drones at the top of its annual arms procurement projects, said Rep. Song Young-sun of the minor opposition Future H...

Preliminary study on missile shield system to be completed by year-end The South Korean military is seeking to develop its own version of the Patriot missile system, which is capable of intercepting North Korean ballistic missiles and fighter jets, multiple sources said Friday. It is pushing to build the envisioned long-range surface-to-air missile with an operational range about twice that of ...

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is pushing for the development of its own version of advanced Patriot missiles to counter North Korean ballistic missiles, military sources said Friday. Multiple sources said the state-run Defense Agency for Technology and Quality (DATQ) will complete by the end of this year its preliminary research on long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAMs), which cou...

South Korea and the U.S. held their regular security talks in Seoul on Thursday to discuss security conditions on the Korean Peninsula and other alliance issues. Deputy Minister for Policy Lim Gwan-bin and Michael Schiffer, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, led the 29th Security Policy Initiative meeting to end on Friday. “South Korea and the U.S. will discuss ways of co...