South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and US Defense Secretary Mark Esper will discuss cost sharing for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops stationed here at a teleconference next month, Seoul’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. “The date and agenda haven’t been finalize

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s message Sunday that he would bolster nuclear capabilities sparked fresh speculation in Seoul over Pyongyang’s intentions, with some analysts here suggesting a new missile launch while others weigh in on less drastic approaches. Presiding over a key mili

Sixty South Koreans who were stranded in Africa due to suspended air travel amid the coronavirus pandemic returned home late Friday on a charter flight. South Korea’s military ran the flight Monday to rotate a batch of troops for the Hanbit Unit stationed in South Sudan, and on the way home,

The United Nations Human Rights Committee said Wednesday a group of North Korean workers who defected to South Korea in 2016 are not being detained against their will, as claimed by lawyers who submitted a complaint to the UN body on behalf of the defector’s self-proclaimed families. In 2016,

Lew Byong-hun, the first deputy commander of the Combined Forces Command jointly operated by South Korea and the United States, died Thursday at age 96, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a press release. A former four-star Army general, Lew was one of the joint command’s found

North Koreans remain vulnerable to the novel coronavirus pandemic, despite Pyongyang’s repeated claims that it has no infections, the US State Department said Wednesday. The department, asked by Radio Free Asia on Wednesday for comment on the COVID-19 situation in the North, said t

The United States is closely monitoring risks to global supply chains from cyberattacks by North Korea and other countries amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, US Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said Tuesday. “I talked a lot about nation state threats, and how those manifest i

South Korea’s military said Sunday that it will screen all new conscripts for the novel coronavirus, starting Monday for eight weeks to test about 6,300 draftees a week. The decision comes in response to the recent surge in infections among young people linked to a cluster that emerged in Se

North Korea is estimated to have spent $620 million on its nuclear weapons program in 2019, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said Wednesday in its latest annual report on nuclear spending. That is about 6 percent of the regime’s defense budget, which accounts fo

South Korea’s military on Wednesday reported three more COVID-19 infections linked to a cluster that recently emerged in the Itaewon neighborhood, Seoul, bringing the tally to 11. The three soldiers apparently contracted the coronavirus from a staff sergeant at the Cyber Command in c