South Korea - The Korea Times

Seoul, Washington agree on new N. Korea plans

By Jung Sung-ki South Korea and the United States agreed to develop new joint operational plans to cope with a wide range of threats posed by North Korea, as well as potential instability there, officials at the Ministry of National Defense said Sunday. The operational plan (OPNAL) 5015, which will replace the current 5027 plan, will include strengthened measures to thwart North Korea’s irregular and asymmetrical warfare capabilities, they said. OPLAN 5027 focuses on defense plans in the case of full-scale war. Both governments will also develop a plan to handle unusual situations in the North, including a regime collapse and mass influx of refugees. The move comes amid an apparent third generation father-to-son power transfer there and the concern that North Korea may turn to provocation after its ailing leader taps his youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor. At the 42nd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington, D.C. Oct. 8, against that backdrop, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and his U.S. counterpart Robert Gates signed the Strategic Planning Guidance for t

Oct 10, 2010

USFK to recognize role of KATUSAs

By Jung Sung-ki The top U.S. commander in South Korea will host an honor guard ceremony next week to recognize the roles and missions of South Korean soldiers augmented to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) both past and present, the USFK announced Thursday. It is the first commemorative ceremony of its kind since the Korea Augmentation to the U.S. Army (KATUSA) program began in August 1950 with the outbreak of the Korean War. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the fratricidal war. The ceremony will be held at Knight Field on Yongsan Garrison at 10 a.m. on Oct. 14, with the attendance of some 300 former and incumbent soldiers, including those who participated in the Korean War, Kim Yong-kyu at the USFK public affairs office said. “KATUSAs have served side by side with American soldiers within U.S. Army units in Korea since the war, working in all military specialties as an integral part of the U.S. fighting force,” the USFK said in a news release. “They are being honored for their invaluable contributions to the defense of Korea and for their unique role

Oct 7, 2010

Arms agency slammed for mismanaging programs

By Jung Sung-ki Costs for procuring major foreign weapons systems have gone up substantially compared to the original costs in recent years as the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) failed to finalize relevant contracts within scheduled timeframes, a lawmaker claimed Thursday. According to Rep. Kim Hak-song, a member of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, the program costs for 15 major weapons systems have seen a 9 trillion won increase over the past decade. The main reasons for the increase include the rise in prices and exchange rates, as well as frequent delays of planned arms procurement and upgrade efforts, Kim said during a parliamentary inspection of the DAPA. Such a mismanagement of arms deals has eventually harmed the Assembly’s budget appropriation authority, the legislator argued. “As for a deal being implemented for several years, if the total costs were rising continuously, that could distort the National Assembly’s authority of budget appropriations. Then related budgets should be reviewed by the Assembly again.” Major arms pro

Oct 7, 2010

S. Korea, US defense chiefs to review joint defense posture

By Jung Sung-ki The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States will meet later this week to review a series of recent joint military exercises designed to show a deterrence capability against North Korean provocation, defense officials said Wednesday. The Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) between Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will be held on Oct. 8 in Washington, D.C. “This meeting with Minister Kim offers the opportunity to review recent joint military exercises, which are a manifestation of our close cooperation and the strong state of our alliance 60 years after the start of the Korean War,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters. Morrell said Gates and Kim will reaffirm efforts to thwart any North Korean provocation, such as the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan in March. In a separate news briefing, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley called on North Korea to refrain from any further provocations. “We do not want to see any further provocative actions by North Korea under any circumsta

Oct 6, 2010

NK ship interdiction exercise to be held next week off Busan

By Jung Sung-ki South Korea will host a multinational ship-interdiction maneuver next week in the waters off Busan, the Ministry of National Defense announced Wednesday. The forthcoming Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise, codenamed Eastern Endeavor 10, is aimed at preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and illicit weapons of rogue states, such as North Korea, a senior official at the ministry said. The high-profile exercise comes as tension remains high on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of North Korea’s alleged attack on a South Korean warship in March and the latest father-to-son power succession move in the North. The exercise will be held Oct. 13-14 in the waters about 28 kilometers offshore with the participation of about 15 nations, the official said. A seminar on joint maritime operations will be held Oct. 14 at a local hotel. Participants include the United States, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, New Zealand, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Italy and Spain, he said. Russia, Switzerland and Sweden are also considering pa

Oct 6, 2010

NK may seek provocation ahead of G20 Summit

National Assembly begins 20-day inspection of state affairs By Jung Sung-ki Latest intelligence reports indicate the possibility of North Korea launching some form of military provocation against South Korea next month to hamper the planned G20 Summit meeting in Seoul, South Korea’s defense chief said Monday. Such a move could have something to do with the Stalinist country’s efforts to solidify its third-generation father-to-son succession, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said. Kim made the remarks during a National Assembly inspection of the ministry. The Assembly started its 20-day inspection of government ministries and agencies Monday. The North appears to be preparing a massive combined exercise of its army, navy and air force ahead of the 65th founding anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party that falls on Oct. 10, he said. The anniversary ceremony would involve a gigantic military parade including 15,000 troops and 200 weapons systems. “North Korean artillery, troops, fighter jets and naval ships have been preparing to conduct a combined exercise in the wa

Oct 4, 2010

Koreas to hold military talks Sept. 30

By Jung Sung-ki South and North Korea will hold their first military talks in nearly two years Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense said. The colonel-level meeting comes as tension remains high on the Korean Peninsula following the sinking of one of South Korea’s warships in March and the de facto father-to-son power transfer in North Korea Tuesday. In a message sent to the South earlier in the day, North Korea accepted Seoul’s proposal to hold the meeting Thursday at the truce village of Panmunjeom near the Demilitarized Zone, a ministry official said. North Korea had proposed holding the talks on Sept. 15, but the South asked for readjusting the time schedule. The South Korean delegation led by Col. Moon Sang-kyun at the ministry’s North Korea bureau will raise the issues of North Korea’s attack on the Cheonan ship, the North’s repeated slandering of the Lee Myung-bak government, and reducing tension near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea border with the North. North Korean delegates, headed by Col. Ri Seon-kwon, are expected to raise

Sep 29, 2010

Debate heats up over main enemy deion

Field military units strengthen education on NK threat since ship sinking By Jung Sung-ki The South Korean military has been reinforcing troop information and education to deal with possible North Korean threats since the sinking of the Cheonan ship in March amid controversy over whether to label the North as the “main enemy” in the country’s defense white paper. In the last few years, the Seoul government has gone back and forth over whether to continue to designate North Korea as the main enemy. The country’s Defense White Paper first referred to North Korea as the main enemy in 1995 after the communist regime threatened to turn Seoul into “a sea of fire” in a 1994 inter-Korean military meeting. A decade later, in 2004 under the Kim Dae-jung administration which advocated the “Sunshine Policy” of engaging the communist neighbor, the description was no longer applied. It was a symbolic change aimed to reduce tension between the decades-old archrivals. Nevertheless, debate on the main enemy reference has continued, as military threats posed by North Korea’s nucle

Sep 28, 2010

Army service period may remain at 21 months

By Jung Sung-ki The government plans to put a halt to a reduction of the Army’s mandatory military service period to 18 months and instead keep it at 21 months, the defense minister said Monday. The previous Roh Moo-hyun government reduced the Army conscription period from 26 to 24 months and then set in motion another reduction to 18 months by 2014. The service periods for the Navy and Air Force were also to have been shortened by six months to 20 and 21 months, respectively, on an incremental basis. The liberal administration believed such a move would maximize the use of manpower as the country’s population ages and birthrates remain low. But critics have argued that this overlooked the seriousness of North Korean threats as well as a potential manpower shortage in the military amid budgetary shortfalls. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young revealed the plan in a policy coordination meeting with ruling Grand National Party lawmakers belonging to the National Assembly Defense Committee. “It’s realistically difficult to increase the service period to 24 months,” Kim s

Sep 27, 2010

S. Korea, US start anti-sub exercise

By Jung Sung-ki South Korea and the United States engaged in a joint anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise Monday in the waters west of the Korean Peninsula, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and U.S. Forces Korea. This is the second in a series of security exercises designed to send a message of deterrence to North Korea, which has been blamed for torpedoing the Cheonan in March near the disputed in the western sea. North Korea has denied any involvement in the ship sinking that killed 46 South Korean sailors. The exercise will coincide with a special conference of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, during which dictator Kim Jong-il is expected to name his youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor. The conference is expected to open Tuesday. “The exercise started around 7 a.m., and everything is going well in accordance with our maneuver plans,” a JCS spokesman told reporters. The ASW exercise was originally scheduled for Sept. 5 to 9, but it was postponed due to an approaching typhoon at that time. During the five-day exercise, which will run through F