South Korea - The Korea Times

Seoul to curtail armed forces to 522,000 by 2022

 South Korea plans to cut its standing forces from the current 640,000 to 522,000 by 2022, while increasing the ratio of non-commissioned officers with specific technical expertise and skills, the defense ministry said Thursday.The defense reform plan for 2014-2030 takes into account the shrinking birth rate in a country where all able-bodied men must complete at least two years of military service to counter North Korea's 1.2 million strong army."Considering the decreasing number of available draftees, the ratio of soldiers will naturally go down unless they serve shorter terms," a senior ministry official in charge of the reform plan said. "The key is to recruit more non-commissioned officers, who are professional soldiers, to keep pace with the current trend."Most of the reduction will come from the Army, which heavily relies on conscripts. The number will be cut from 498,000 to 387,000 in the next eight years. The manpower of the other branches will remain unchanged at 41,000 for the Navy, 65,000 for the Air Force and 29,000 for the Marine Corps.By rank, the number of soldie

Mar 6, 2014

Seoul to curtail armed forces to 522,000 by 2022

ROK, US to keep drills low-key

By Chung Min-uckSouth Korea and the United States plan a low-key start today for their joint military drills to ensure ongoing inter-Korean family reunions are not disrupted.The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Sunday the two allies will hold the computer-based command post exercise, dubbed Key Resolve, from Monday to March 6.Key Resolve will be followed by a combined field-training drill, called Foal Eagle, from Monday to April 18.Key Resolve will involve 10,000 South Korean and 5,200 American troops, which represents an increase of about 1,700 U.S. forces compared to last year.For Foal Eagle, about 7,500 American troops, a decrease of 25 percent from last year, will join 200,000 South Korean troops.A military official said Sunday less South Korean soldiers will be involved in the joint drills than last year.MND officials said that the joint military exercise will be carried out in a “low-key” manner.“The joint drills are defensive by nature and it is wrong to think that the exercises are aimed at preparing for an attack against the North,” said an MND

Feb 23, 2014

Korea to sign deal to buy F-35 jets by Sept.

By Kang Seung-wooKorea plans to sign a multibillion-dollar deal to buy 40 F-35 Lightning II fighter jets by the end of September, the nation’s arms procurement agency said Monday.The price for the stealth aircraft from Lockheed Martin is estimated at 7.4 trillion won.“Once the Defense Acquisition Program Executive Committee approves the revised purchase plan between February and March, we will push to sign a deal by the end of September after conducting flight tests and negotiations,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Jung Kwang-sun, director of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s (DAPA) aircraft department, at a press briefing.The military’s decision-making committee voted down Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle in the 8.3 trillion won F-X III due to its lack of stealth capability in September last year. And the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to purchase 40 radar-evading warplanes in November for deployment from 2018 to 2021, making the Lockheed Martin product the lone candidate. It also said that an additional 20 fighters will be acquired later, depe

Jan 27, 2014

Ex-US commanders split over OPCON transfer

 Former top U.S. military commanders in Korea were divided Tuesday over the timing of wartime operational control, while agreeing with the urgency of coping with North Korea's "asymmetric" capabilities. They were united in urging the allies to maintain an effective combined command structure. Retired Gen. John Tilelli said the U.S. government should accept South Korea's request for a further delay in the OPCON transfer, now set for December 2015. Tilelli, who served as head of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) from 1996 to 1999, called for a thorough review of South Korea's defense capabilities and North Korea's threats to decide on the appropriate timing. He was speaking at a security forum here, also joined by retired Gen. Walter "Skip" Sharp, who led USFK from 2008 to 2011 and his successor, James D. Thurman.It was unusual for three former USFK chiefs to sit together at a public event.Sharp put more emphasis on South Korea's continued development of its defense capabilities, especially through the modernization of weaponry.In a recent report, he also said the U

Jan 22, 2014

Ex-US commanders split over OPCON transfer

F-35 price to fall with new Pentagon deal

By Kang Seung-wooThe U.S. Department of Defense reached an agreement in principle Tuesday with Lockheed Martin to purchase 71 F-35 Lightning II at a lower price.The agreement includes the purchase of 36 jets in the sixth low-rate initial production (LRIP-6) lot and 35 in the seventh. The contracting effort spanned six months from proposal to settlement.A decrease in F-35 unit costs, coupled with negotiating lower prices on a number of other smaller contracts, will allow the Department to purchase all the aircraft originally planned, including those that were in jeopardy of being cut due to sequestration budget impacts.Cost details will be released once both contracts are finalized; however, in general, the unit prices for all three variants of the U.S. air vehicles are roughly 4 percent lower than the previous contract. LRIP-7 air vehicle prices will show an additional 4 percent reduction. The LRIP-7 price represents about an 8 percent reduction from the LRIP-5 contract signed in December 2012.“These two contracts represent a fair deal that is beneficial to the government and L

Jul 31, 2013

US says wartime control transfer as scheduled

Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia David Helvey discusses security issues on the Korean peninsula and the transition of wartime operation control (OPCON) at the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) in Seoul.The nominee for the chief of U.S. force Korea (USFK) said he backs the idea of transferring the wartime operational control (OPCON) to Korean side as planned in 2015.Despite Seoul's call for some flexibility on the timeline, the stance by Army Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti reflects a gap between the allies on the appropriate timing for the OPCON transfer in the face of growing threats from nuclear-armed North Korea."I do agree with the timetable. It is a bilateral agreement, Strategic Alliance 2015, to turn over operational control by December of 2015," he said in a Senate confirmation hearing. In May, President Barack Obama nominated Scaparrotti, formerly deputy commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, to head U.S. Forces Korea. If confirmed, he will get promoted to the rank of four-star general and succeed Gen. James Thurman."I think it's a good plan ... And I

Jul 31, 2013

US says wartime control transfer as scheduled

S. Korea to re-examine fighter jet project

South Korea will stop the current bidding for fighter jets and revise the project as high price tags have made the chance of selecting a satisfactory contractor slim, a senior official said Thursday.The move comes after the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) carried out 55 separate biddings with three defense groups to buy 60 advanced jets with an 8.3 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) budget, but the procedure was put on hold last week due to their expensive price tags.Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle, Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth jet and the Eurofighter Tranche 3 Typhoon from the European Aerospace Defense and Space Company (EADS) participated in the bidding sessions from June 18 to July 5 to win Seoul's largest arms import deal."The DAPA plans to stop the current bidding and re-examine the project," a senior DAPA official said, requesting anonymity. "Whether to restart the procurement plan from scratch or make changes to requirements will be discussed."Changes to the number of jets to be bought or increasing the state budget needs the DAPA to open a new project and get appro

Jul 11, 2013

Cheong Wa Dae hacked

By Nam Hyun-wooThe website of Cheong Wa Dae was shut down Tuesday due to an unidentified cyber attack.Authorities couldn’t confirm who the attackers were but didn’t rule out North Korea.At 9:30 a.m., the presidential homepage was hacked by people claiming to be “Anonymous.” The online activist group later denied any involvement.The website was saturated with messages lauding North Korean leader Kim Jong-un; one of which read, “Hacked by Anonymous, Hail the great unification President Kim Jong-un. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” The messages remained for about 10 minutes before the website displayed an announcement that it was under repair. Normal operations were finally restored at 5 p.m.  Some news media websites and several government agencies, including the Office of Government Policy Coordination were also hacked.Following the serial cyber attacks, the government issued an alert on “cyber security,” raising its five-stage alert from level one to two.Anonymous stated on

Jun 25, 2013

Half of teens do not know when Korean War broke out

By Kim Jae-wonMore than half of teenagers said they didn’t not know the date the Korean War (1950-53) broke out, a government survey showed Sunday.According to the survey conducted by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration on 1,000 middle and high school students from May 25 to June 6, 53 percent of them failed to correctly say when the war broke out.In a separate survey of 1,000 adults aged 19 and over, 36 percent of them could not correctly answer the same question.The Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950 when North Korean launched a surprise invasion of the South. The war continued for three years until July 27, 1953, when multinational forces under the United Nations Command, which supported the Republic of Korea, signed an armistice agreement with the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the cease-fire agreement.Even though more than half of the students didn’t know the year the Korean War broke out, 51.3 percent of them said that North Korea was the enemy.

Jun 23, 2013

N. Korea rolls out 900 new tanks in last seven years: source

The North Korean Army has deployed about 900 new tanks equipped with improved armament in the last seven years to modernize its aging vehicles, a South Korean military source said Wednesday.The new tanks, known as the "Chonma-ho 5" (sky horse) and the "Songun-ho" (military first), are equipped with an advanced fire control system and turret guns, an upgrade compared to the Pokpung-ho (storm) tank, which was first revealed in October 2010 during a military parade.The Chonma-ho 5 is the latest variant of North Korea's main battle tank, the Chonma, which was built based on the Soviet T-62 tank. "The North Korean military has deployed 900 new tanks from 2005 untill last year," the source said, asking for anonymity as the information is classified. "The number is more than double of South Korean tanks deployed during the same period."The Songun is believed to have been named after the military-first policy heralded by former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a guideline for ruling the impoverished, communist country. The vision has been upheld by his young son, Jong-un, who is pursu

Jun 19, 2013

Defense