South Korea's financial watchdog said Friday it has asked police to investigate market rumors about an explosion at North Korea's nuclear facilities to find out whether speculators intentionally spread them to take profits. Korea's stocks and currency sharply fell on Friday, hit by market talks there had been an explosion at light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea earlier in the day, which r...

HELSINKI (AFP) ― Sixty-nine Patriot missiles impounded in Finland after being found on a merchant vessel in mid-December were headed for South Korea, the Finnish government said Wednesday, granting their transit through Finnish territory. “The missiles in question had been sold to the Republic of Korea by Germany,” the government said in a statement, adding that it had granted a license to Seoul...

Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Defense Udi Shani came to Korea on Thursday to discuss issues regarding the T-50 advanced trainer jet. Shani’s visit comes on the heels of his visit to Italy, Korea’s competitor for a lucrative defense contract estimated to be worth $1 billion. Israel has been weighing the Korean-made T-50 against Italy’s M-346 to replace the U.S.-made A-4 Skyhawk advanc...

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is seeking U.S. cooperation to ensure safe shipment of missiles that were detained in Finland, government sources said Thursday. One source said a British-registered ship, named Thor Liberty, has been authorized to leave the port in Kotka, southern Finland. The ship, carrying 69 surface-to-air missiles from Germany to South Korea, was impounded there last m...

South Korean military to enhance readiness on border and improve conditions for conscripts The South Korean military has included cyberspace in its comprehensive defense plan, the Ministry of National Defense said in its annual report on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs revealed that it is reviewing plans to introduce a quota in the civil service for those who ...

The U.S. Forces Korea commander on Tuesday extended the off-base curfew on military personnel until further notice. The new curfew begins Jan. 7 at 1 a.m. The hours of the curfew are from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. throughout the week. Previously, the curfew had been enforced from midnight until 5 a.m. on weekdays and from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends and public holidays. The U.S. military introduced a c...

The defense ministry said Thursday it is scheduled to finish cleaning up former U.S. military bases returned to South Korea by the end of this week. The ministry said 16 former U.S. installations have been cleaned up after more than two and a half years of work, covering 425.7 million square meters. One other base will join the list by July next year, it added. The U.S. forces here have returne...

A U.S.-made advanced surveillance aircraft will take part in live military drills next year for the first time since joining the Air Force here in September, an official said Tuesday. An Air Force official said the E-737 aircraft by Boeing will join the joint Max Thunder exercises between South Korea and the U.S. The biannual exercises are scheduled for May and October next year. The airborne e...

A Britain-registered ship carrying missiles to South Korea has been detained in Finland after trying to avoid a typhoon, a South Korean official said Tuesday. According to the official with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the ship Thor Liberty, which was delivering 69 Patriot missiles from Germany to South Korea, was impounded in Kotka, southern Finland, on Dec. 15. The vessel h...

South Korea’s plan to purchase Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance planes has been put off by one year as the U.S. government has not agreed to the sale yet, a government source said Monday. With the planned purchase of the Global Hawks hitting a snag, South Korea plans to invite two more models of U.S.-made spy drones ― the Global Observer made by AeroVironment and Boeing’s Phantom Eye ― to bid...

South Korea plans to buy two advanced reconnaissance planes from France by 2015, to allow the military to intercept radio messages from of North Korea, a government source said Monday. The South’s military will replace some of its aging spy planes with the militarized specialty version of “Falcon-2000” jet, produced by France’s Dassault Aviation, to keep closer watch on North Korea, the source s...

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to buy two advanced reconnaissance planes from France by 2015, to allow the military to intercept radio messages from of North Korea, a government source said Monday. The South's military will replace some of its aging spy planes with the militarized specialty version of "Falcon-2000" jet, produced by France's Dassault Aviation, to keep closer watch o...

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering signed a contract to build three submarines for the Indonesian navy on Tuesday. The contract calls for DSME to build three 1,400-ton submarines for the Indonesian navy for a total of $1.1 billion, making the contract the largest single defense contract to be awarded to a Korean firm. With the addition of the latest contract, the value of Korea’s defens...