South Korea - The Korea Times

JCS chief calls for Navy‘s quick response to NK provocations

Korea's top military general on Monday urged the Navy to counter North Korean provocations with prompt and stern responses. Army Gen. Jung Seung-jo, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), inspected the Navy's 2nd Fleet Command here in Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul. Jung checked up on the unit's naval readiness posture and its preparations to ensure South Korea's safe hosting of the Nuclear Security Summit later this month. During his visit, Jung boarded a 3,200-ton destroyer named the Yang Man Chun and was briefed on the status of the North Korean military and the command's preparations for naval security during the Nuclear Security Summit. The destroyer simulated attacks by North Korea's ground-to-ship guided missiles and demonstrated its response procedures. Jung later boarded the fast-attack craft Chamsuri 322 and a patrol killer, guided-missile (PKG) class high-speed vessel to watch the naval troops in training. The chairman called on the command to stay on guard at all times. "North Korea can provoke us at any moment, and you should t

Mar 12, 2012

Korea, US to wrap up joint exercise

Korea and the U.S. are set to wrap up their annual joint military exercise, called the Key Resolve, later Friday, officials said. The exercise mobilized about 200,000 Korean troops and some 2,900 U.S. troops, including 800 from overseas. The Key Resolve began on Feb. 27. During the exercise, the allies discussed ways to prevent the leaking of North Korean weapons of mass destruction outside the peninsula in contingencies. They also talked about how to handle a large group of North Korean refugees in such cases. North Korea made war threats before and during the exercise last month, accusing the South and the U.S. of preparing for a northward invasion. During the Key Resolve, the allies mobilized their surveillance assets, such as radar and reconnaissance planes, and the South's Air Force placed its F-15K fighters on emergency standby. North Korea also reportedly placed its front-line units on heightened alert. "North Korea carried out live-firing drills and fighter jet training during the Key Resolve," a South Korean military official said. "But we haven't yet detec

Mar 9, 2012

Seoul fears delivery delays of F-35 jets

Lockheed Martin’s fighter program encountering development delays, cost overruns By Lee Tae-hoon Chances are high for the government to pick the F-35 fighter jet as the mainstay of the Air Force later this year, but it is doubtful whether the new aircraft can be delivered to Korea as promised from 2016. Seoul is expected to announce the winner of the bidding for its next-generation fighter acquisition project in October this year in line with its plan to introduce 10 advanced jets in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and the remaining 40 by 2020. “Lockheed Martin officials recently informed us that the F-35 development and testing is progressing faster than anticipated and that they are confident of delivering fully operational fighter jets by 2016,” a senior official of the state-run Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said Tuesday. “But it is dubious whether their claims can be accepted as the F-35 program, which is still in the early stage of flight testing, continues to encounter development delays and cost overruns.” Lockheed Martin, which has propo

Mar 6, 2012

Military investigators seek arrest warrants for officers on leaking secrets

Military investigators on Monday filed for warrants to arrest two active officers for allegedly leaking confidential information, officials said. Civilian prosecutors are also seeking a warrant to detain a university professor who allegedly gave away military secrets she received from the officers. According to military officials, an Army lieutenant colonel surnamed Lee and an unrelated Navy lieutenant commander also named Lee, both working for the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), are suspected of having handed over military secrets to the professor in question, surnamed Park, who was once a DAPA executive. Officials said Park was the immediate superior to the two officers at the state-run DAPA. The two officers have reportedly denied the charges during an investigation by the Defense Security Command, the nation's top counter-intelligence unit. "We will seek to take into custody the people whose allegations of identifying and leaking military secrets brought against them are so obvious," an official with the Defense Security Command said. "We will have

Mar 5, 2012

Exclusive F-15K jets fly blind to enemy attacks

By Lee Tae-hoon At least 7 percent of F-15Ks, the most advanced fighter jets that Korea has ever purchased, have been flying with a malfunctioning electronic countermeasures (ECM) system over the past few years, according to multiple sources Thursday. No less than four of the country’s 52 F-15Ks in service are operating with a defective ALQ-135M, an internal ECM system manufactured and supplied only to Korea by Northrop Grumman, they said. “Korea has set aside $56 million to procure six ALQ-135Ms to use them as spare parts as the critical electronic warfare suite of the F-15Ks frequently breaks down,” a senior government official said. “Nevertheless, we have been facing great difficulties in procuring them mainly because the customized advanced ECM system is used only in Korea and is no longer manufactured.” A senior Air Force official noted that the operational rate of F-15Ks, the mainstay of the country’s Air Force fighter fleet, is estimated to be about 84 percent, and that about 7 percent of them fly with defective self-protection measures. “The rate of fully

Mar 1, 2012

Korea develops active protection systems for tanks

Korea has successfully developed active protection systems for its tanks and armored vehicles, an indigenous technology that would drastically increase their survivability, officials said Tuesday. The new system to be installed in the K2 tank can automatically detect and destroy incoming anti-tank missiles or rockets before the threats hit the tank, an official of the Agency for Defense Development said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. The state-run agency said it has developed the new defense system after five years of research. The agency official said it was not immediately clear when the new system will be deployed. Korean defense officials expect they will be able to apply active protection systems for vessels or helicopters as well as major state facilities in the future, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said in a statement. Last year, the weapons procurement agency decided to postpone a deployment of K2, a new main battle tank under development, by up to one year to 2013 because of mechanical problems involving its engine and transmission

Mar 1, 2012

Gov’t to push ahead with Jeju naval base project

The government announced Wednesday it will proceed with construction of a naval base on the southern island of Jeju as scheduled, overriding objections from opposition parties and civic groups that the base will harm the island and cause security tensions in the region. The project, which was launched in 2007 during the previous administration of late President Roh Moo-hyun, has been one of the most contentious issues in South Korea recently as opposition parties, environmental groups and other activists staged strong protests against it. Construction began last year in Gangjeong Village on the southern tip of the resort island for a harbor that will accommodate around 20 naval vessels, and is now about 17 percent complete, with the government planning to complete construction by 2015. Officials said not only naval vessels, but large civilian cruise ships will be able to use the port. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-shik presided over a state policy coordination meeting that decided to push ahead with the project as scheduled. The meeting came a week after President

Feb 29, 2012

Lockheed Martin hit for misleading remark

By Lee Tae-hoon U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin will face a penalty unless it formally offers an apology for misleading statements over Korea’s plan to purchase fighter jets for 8.29 trillion won ($7.3 billion), multiple sources said Tuesday. Senior officials at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said that Lockheed Martin has undermined the credibility of the government’s plan to purchase 60 advanced jets in a fair international competition. The company has been cornered over a report by Dusty Ricketts of the Northwest Florida Daily News that claimed Stephen O’Bryan, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program integration, told reporters in early February that Korea had already agreed to purchase F-35 jets. Many media outlets here churned out articles suggesting that Rickett’s report confirmed the ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Song Young-sun’s claim that that President Lee Myung-bak promised Barack Obama to purchase F-35s in a summit in Washington on Oct. 13 last year. Rep. Song told The Korea Times that she still suspects a shady deal migh

Feb 28, 2012

Experts doubt NK’s rocket upgrade

By Lee Tae-hoon Military experts and insiders downplayed Monday media reports that North Korea has succeeded in doubling the range of its 240-millimeter multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) in time to celebrate the centennial of the nation’s founder Kim Il-sung’s birth in April. They said it was nonsense to believe that the impoverished North has made significant progress in the development of a propulsion system that doubles the range of the rockets. Citing an anonymous government source, media outlets, including Yonhap News Agency, claimed that the communist North recently completed upgrading its model of the 22-round M-1991, a truck-mounted MLRS. They argued that the South’s entire capital area, home to more than 20 million people, will come under the range of the modified rocket, dubbed “Juche 100 Gun,” as it is capable of travelling more than 120 kilometers. A senior rocket expert at the Defense Acquisition and Program Administration (DAPA) said the media reports were baseless unless the North has successfully developed a propulsion system that is a quantum le

Feb 27, 2012

Korea, US begin annual Key Resolve exercise as NK issues threat

South Korea and the U.S. kicked off their joint Key Resolve military exercise on Monday, as North Korea issued yet another threat to strike back. The Key Resolve, which will go on until March 9, will involve about 200,000 South Korean troops and 2,100 U.S. troops. About 800 more U.S. participants will come from outside South Korea, according to the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC). Officials have stressed the Key Resolve is "routine and defense-oriented" and it's planned months ahead, with no connection to current international affairs. They also said Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Britain, members of the U.N. Command, will take part in the Key Resolve as observers. Despite claims by Seoul and Washington, North Korea has routinely denounced the Key Resolve drills as precursors for an invasion. On Monday, North Korea accused the two allies of being "poised for a war carrying nuclear war equipment" and dubbed the South and the U.S. "warmongers." "The war drills are an unpardonable infringement upon the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK as they ev