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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

No plans to cut back US-South Korea drills: Pentagon

The Pentagon is not considering cutting back the joint US-South Korean military exercises that have drawn angry condemnation from Pyongyang ahead of a planned US-North Korea summit, an official said Thursday."There's been no talk of reducing anything. There's been no talk of changing our scope," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said.The exercises "are defensive in nature and the scope hasn't changed ... This is about safeguarding the alliance," she added.North Korea has canceled talks with Seoul over the "Max Thunder" joint military exercises between the US and the South.Pyongyang has also threatened to cancel a historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore next month, following weeks of tentative rapprochement.The Max Thunder drills started May 11 and involve some 100 aircraft from the US and South Korea, including F-22 stealth fighter jets. (AFP)

May 18, 2018
No plans to cut back US-South Korea drills: Pentagon

Eight F-22 stealth jets participating in Max Thunder

An F-22 Raptor stealth fighter lands at a military base in Gwangju, Wednesday, amid Max Thunder, a joint military drill between the Air Forces of South Korea and the U.S. / YonhapBy Kim RahnMax Thunder, which North Korea claims is the cause of its decision to cancel high-level talks with the South, is a joint military drill between the Air Forces of South Korea and the United States. It has been held every May since 2009, with this year's drill starting May 11 and continuing for two weeks.The drills include annual defensive exercises with mock combat, and the number of fighter jets and troops this year is similar to those in years past, with some 100 aircraft from both countries participating, according to the Korean Air Force.This year, eight of the U.S.'s F-22 Raptor stealth fighters were deployed for the drills for the first time. It is said the Raptor fighters can penetrate North Korea's radar fence and make surgical strikes against strategic facilities. But unlike the initial plan, B-52 strategic bombers, one of the U.S.'s strategic assets, will not be deployed, amid ongoing tal

May 16, 2018
Eight F-22 stealth jets participating in Max Thunder
  • North Korea plays hardball ahead of summit

1st female armored unit officers hope to set successful example

Republic of Korea Army's second lieutenants Park Seung-ri, left, and Yun Chae-eun smile while posing on top of an Army tank in this file photo. / Courtesy of Republic of Korea ArmyBy Lee Min-hyungThe number of female military officers here is far below that of developed countries, largely due to the nationwide perception that only men should serve in the military.The Ministry of National Defense has, for this reason, unveiled its plan to raise the proportion of female military officers to 8.8 percent by 2020 from this year's 5.5 percent. This year, the defense ministry selected 1,100 female military officers, and plans to more than double the number to 2,450 in 2022.No one would doubt the military here has so far been considered a place for men. This is largely due to a series of outdated military regulations which prevent women from working for some front-line or combat units. All able-bodied men are also required to serve in the military. But the ministry is on track to abolish such discriminative regulations to foster gender equality in the military and shatter negative perception

May 16, 2018

South Korea lashes out at Japan's Dokdo claim

Dokdo / Korea Times fileSouth Korea urged Japan on Tuesday to retract its repeated territorial claim over Dokdo, a pair of rocky outcroppings in the East Sea, saying it will only impede efforts to move forward bilateral ties.It was a reminder of longstanding diplomatic rifts between the neighboring countries despite a call for firm unity among regional powers to handle Pyongyang's recent peace overtures.In a statement, South Korea's foreign ministry denounced the description of sovereignty over Dokdo in Japan's yearly foreign policy document, known as the Diplomatic Bluebook, reported to the Cabinet earlier in the day.The ministry lodged a strong complaint against the Japanese government's "unjustifiable" claim over the ownership of Dokdo, which is effectively controlled by Seoul."The Japanese government will have to recognize that reiterating the unjustifiable and preposterous assertion about Dokdo won't be of help at all to the establishment of forward-looking South Korea-Japan relations,' the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.It stressed that Japan's move will have no effect on Sou

May 15, 2018
South Korea lashes out at Japan's Dokdo claim

South Korea, US set for talks on sharing defense cost

/ YonhapSouth Korea and the U.S. will hold another round of negotiations next week on sharing the cost of maintaining American troops in Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.The third session of the 10th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) talks between the allies will be held in Washington D.C. on Monday and Tuesday, it said.The previous ones took place in Honolulu in March and on Jeju Island in April.The two sides plan to have "in-depth consultations" to fine-tune their positions on the basis of discussions in the previous talks, the ministry said.The existing SMA deal is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.South Korea has shared the financial burden for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), currently around 28,500 personnel, since the early 1990s.Seoul's contribution has increased to around 960 billion won ($887 million) in 2018 under the five-year accord from 150 billion won in 1991, officials said. (Yonhap)

May 11, 2018
South Korea, US set for talks on sharing defense cost

KAI paid firm of Trump's lawyer $150,000 for consulting

Korea Aerospace Industries / YonhapSouth Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) said on Wednesday it had paid $150,000 for consulting services on accounting matters to a firm set up by U.S. President Donald Trump’s private lawyer Michael Cohen.The arrangement came as the company, backed by state-owned Export-Import Bank of Korea, is competing to sell trainer jets to the U.S. Air Force in an auction that could be worth up to $16 billion.Payments by KAI and other companies including AT&T to Essential Consultants, a company that paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 just before the U.S. presidential election, were described on Tuesday by her lawyer Michael Avenatti.Neither Avenatti nor Cohen responded to requests from Reuters for comment.Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said Cohen paid her to stay quiet about a 2006 sexual encounter she had with Trump, an encounter which Trump has denied.A KAI spokesman said it signed a contract with Essential last year for “legal consulting concerning accounting standards on production cos

May 11, 2018
KAI paid firm of Trump's lawyer $150,000 for consulting

Seoul, Beijing resume military talks

By Lee Min-hyungSouth Korea and China resumed Monday a defense policy dialogue, discussing their positions about the recent inter-Korean summit.This came more than two years after both countries held their last working-level defense policy talk in January 2016. The dialogue has since been suspended in the wake of the political conflict surrounding Seoul's decision to deploy the terminal high altitude (THAAD) anti-missile system.“Seoul and Beijing discussed the results of the summit and a series of security issues on the Korean Peninsula,” the ministry said in a statement. “Both sides also exchanged ideas on plans for future military partnerships.”Yeo Seok-joo, the chief of the National Defense Policy Office of the ministry, and Hu Changming, head of the international military cooperation unit of China's defense ministry, participated in the dialogue.“The resumption of the dialogue is expected to enhance bilateral trust as well as invigorate and enhance bilateral defense cooperation in wider areas encompassing educational exchanges and interchanges of per

May 7, 2018
Seoul, Beijing resume military talks
  • Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping met in China on May 7-8

Ministers to visit border islands for discussions on maritime peace zone

Four South Korean ministers will travel to two western border islands on Saturday to solicit residents' opinions over a recent cross-border summit agreement to establish a maritime peace zone, Seoul officials said.Song Young-moo, Kang Kyung-wha, Cho Myoung-gyon and Kim Young-choon, the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, unification and oceans, respectively, will visit Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong islands near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto inter-Korean sea border.Their trip is seen as Seoul's first step to enforce the summit agreement to devise a practical scheme to turn the areas around the NLL into a maritime peace zone to prevent accidental naval clashes and guarantee safe fishing activities."It is a trip for communication with the islanders over how to address the tensions (surrounding the islands) and how to ensure that the fishermen from the two Koreas can carry out fishing activities peacefully," a defense ministry official said, declining to be named.Tensions have continued around the NLL, as Pyongyang disputes the sea line on the grounds that it was drawn unilat

May 5, 2018
  • Moon, Trump to meet in Washington on May 22

Moon, Xi vow joint efforts in pushing for formal end to Korean War

South Korea and China will closely work together to push for a peace treaty with North Korea that would formally end the Korean War, the countries' leaders said Friday.In a telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, South Korean President Moon Jae-in also stressed the importance of China's role in ridding North Korea of its nuclear ambitions, Moon's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said."President Moon stressed that President Xi's continued interest and support, as well as the Chinese government's active contribution, are important in completely denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and establishing permanent peace," it said in a press release.The Moon-Xi conversation came one week after the South Korean president held a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.In a joint statement, called the Panmunjom Declaration, Moon and Kim agreed to push for complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War with a peace treaty.The two

May 4, 2018
  • EXCLUSIVE US, China in talks over THAAD withdrawal

Trump orders Pentagon to consider reducing US forces in South Korea: NYT

/ Captured from The New York TimesU.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to review downsizing American troops stationed in South Korea, a U.S. news report said Friday.The president told the Department of Defense to "prepare options for drawing down American troops in South Korea" in the run-up to his landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the following weeks, the New York Times reported. The news outlet cited several people briefed on the order.Read the original article: https://nyti.ms/2HOM7zuThe downsizing is not designed as a "bargaining chip" in Trump's talks with Kim, but a peace treaty between the two Koreas could diminish the need for the presence of more than 20,000 American soldiers on the South side of the Korean Peninsula, the report said.The Times also attributed the downsizing order to the ongoing negotiations between Washington and Seoul over how to share the cost of keeping the U.S. forces on the peninsula. Trump has been determined to withdraw the troops, arguing that the U.S. is not adequately compensated for the cost, according to the

May 4, 2018
Trump orders Pentagon to consider reducing US forces in South Korea: NYT
  • Cheong Wa Dae dismisses possible reduction of US troops in South Korea
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