May 6, 2023
The US military says a US F-16 fighter jet crashed in a farming area south of Seoul during a training exercise on Saturday, but appeared to have caused no casualties or property damage.
The jet's pilot safely ejected before the crash and was taken to the nearest hospital, the US Air Force says in a statement.
"An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing crashed in an agricultural area near Osan Air Base at about 9:45 am" in Gyeonggi province, the statement says. — AFP
April 26, 2023
A US nuclear missile submarine will visit South Korea for the first time in decades as part of a reinforced nuclear shield set to be announced at the White House by presidents Joe Biden and Yoon Suk Yeol, an official says.
The senior US official says measures being announced Wednesday have not been seen since the height of the Cold War and are meant to boost deterrence in the face of North Korea's aggressive nuclear activities.
Biden and Yoon, at the White House for a state visit, will issue a document called the Washington Declaration outlining how in addition to a beefed-up US military umbrella, the United States will increase information sharing with Seoul. — AFP
April 24, 2023
South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Washington Monday for a six-day state visit, as the allies move to bulk up military cooperation over North Korea's expanding nuclear threats.
Pyongyang has conducted another record-breaking string of sanctions-defying launches this year, including test-firing the country's first solid-fuel ballistic missile this month -- a key technical breakthrough for Kim Jong Un's military.
In response, Yoon has pulled South Korea closer to long-standing ally Washington, and the trip has a packed schedule including a summit with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, where the pair will celebrate 70 years of ties.
"The two leaders will spend a lot of time together over the course of many events (to) celebrate the achievements of the South Korea-US alliance over 70 years, and exchange in-depth views on the alliance's future," principal deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told reporters ahead of the trip. — AFP
April 21, 2023
South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol heads to Washington Monday, as the allies bolster military cooperation -- including with US regional partner Japan -- over North Korea's expanding nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang has conducted another record-breaking string of sanctions-defying launches this year, including test-firing the country's first solid-fuel ballistic missile this month -- a key technical breakthrough for Kim Jong Un's military.
In response, Yoon has pulled South Korea closer to long-standing ally Washington, and even sought to bury the hatchet with former colonial power Japan in a bid to contain North Korea. — AFP
April 12, 2023
South Korea's opposition urged the government on Wednesday to investigate alleged espionage by the United States after leaked documents appeared to show Washington spying on its key Asian ally.
A trove of highly sensitive US intelligence that has emerged online included revelations that Washington had been spying on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s national security advisors as part of an effort to secure arms supplies for Ukraine.
Seoul sought to downplay the importance of the leaked documents on Tuesday, with Yoon's office claiming "a significant number" of the documents were fake and his national security advisor saying there were no "malicious intentions" in the incident.
But the revelation has sparked criticism in South Korea about the vulnerability of sensitive sites including the presidential office. — AFP
April 12, 2023
South Korea's opposition has urged the government to investigate alleged espionage by the United States after leaked documents appeared to show Washington spying on its key Asian ally.
A trove of highly sensitive US intelligence that has emerged online included revelations that Washington had been spying on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s national security advisors as part of an effort to secure arms supplies for Ukraine.
Seoul sought to downplay the importance of the leaked documents on Tuesday, with Yoon's office claiming "a significant number" of the documents were fake and his national security advisor saying there were no "malicious intentions" in the incident.
But the revelation has sparked criticism in South Korea about the vulnerability of sensitive sites including the presidential office.
"The government must get to the bottom of eavesdropping allegations and if they are found to be true, it must get an official apology and guarantee that it won't do it again from the US," Lee Jae-myung, head of the opposition Democratic party, said on Wednesday. — AFP
April 5, 2023
South Korea and the United States on Wednesday staged joint air drills involving at least one US nuclear-capable B-52H strategic bomber, Seoul's military said.
North Korea views such exercises as rehearsals for invasion, and has responded to other recent drills with a spate of increasingly provocative banned weapons tests.
In recent weeks it has tested what state media described as an underwater nuclear-capable drone, and carried out the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. — AFP
February 24, 2023
The United States and South Korea held a "tabletop" exercise at the Pentagon on the nuclear threat from Pyongyang, the two countries say.
"Given the DPRK's recent aggressive nuclear policy and advancements in nuclear capabilities, the... scenario focused on the possibility of the DPRK's use of nuclear weapons," a joint statement says, referring to North Korea.
The US and South Korean delegations "focused their discussion on alliance deterrence to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and potential options for responding to DPRK nuclear weapons use," the statement says.
"Both sides affirmed that the alliance stands ready to respond to the DPRK's nuclear threats." — AFP
February 2, 2023
South Korea says it had staged joint air drills with the United States featuring strategic bombers and stealth fighters, prompting Pyongyang to warn that such exercises could "ignite an all-out showdown".
The exercises, the first by the security allies this year, came a day after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart vowed to boost security cooperation to counter an increasingly belligerent nuclear-armed North Korea.
The drills on Wednesday showed "the US's will and capabilities to provide strong and credible extended deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," the South Korean defense ministry says. — AFP
January 31, 2023
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets his counterpart in Seoul on Tuesday, pledging to beef up joint drills and security cooperation as South Korea seeks nuclear reassurances in the face of growing North Korean threats.
Seoul is eager to convince its increasingly nervous public of America's so-called extended deterrence commitments, after a year in which North Korea declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power and conducted a banned weapons test almost every month.
Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup agreed to "expand and bolster the level and scale" of joint military exercises, in light of "continued provocations" from Pyongyang, including a recent drone incursion, they say in a statement. — AFP
January 31, 2023
The United States and South Korea will hold discussion-based exercises on addressing nuclear threats, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin says.
Washington and Seoul will conduct "increasingly complex scenario-based tabletop exercises focused on nuclear threats on the peninsula," Austin writes in an op-ed published by the Yonhap news agency, without specifying when this would occur.
Austin is visiting Seoul for the third time as defence secretary, during which he is to meet with his South Korean counterpart Lee Jong-sup and President Yoon Suk-yeol. — AFP
January 2, 2023
Seoul and Washington are discussing joint planning and exercises involving US nuclear assets to counter growing threats from the nuclear-armed North, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol says.
In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper published Monday, Yoon said the United States' existing "nuclear umbrella" and "extended deterrence" were no longer enough to reassure South Koreans.
"The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but the planning, information sharing, exercises and training must be done jointly by South Korea and the United States," Yoon said, adding that the US was "quite positive" about the idea.
His comments came a day after the North's state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un had called for an "exponential" increase in his country's nuclear arsenal and new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to counter what it termed US and South Korean hostility. — AFP
December 14, 2022
The United States military launches a space force unit in South Korea on Wednesday that will help better detect ballistic missile launches from North Korea.
North Korea has carried out a record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year, including its newest intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
The new unit will provide "near-real-time detection and warning of ballistic missile launches", according to a statement from US Forces Korea (USFK). — AFP
December 7, 2022
The United States on Tuesday announced the approval of a $1.5 billion sale of 18 CH-47F Chinook transport helicopters and other equipment to South Korea.
"The proposed sale will improve the ROK’s capability to meet current and future threats by strengthening its Army heavy lift capability," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement, using an abbreviation for the Republic of Korea.
"The CH-47F will allow the ROK to conduct missions in support of bilateral operational plans which include, but are not limited to, medical evacuation, search and rescue, parachute drops, and disaster relief," it added.
The State Department approved the possible sale, and the DSCA on Tuesday provided the required notification to Congress, which still needs to sign off on the transaction. — AFP
November 19, 2022
Seoul's military say a US B-1B strategic bomber was redeployed to the Korean peninsula on Saturday for a joint air drill with South Korea, a day after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile.
"South Korea and the US conducted a joint air drill today with the US Air Force's B-1B strategic bomber redeployed on the Korean peninsula," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff say in a statement.
Some of the most advanced jets in the US and South Korean air forces, including the F-35 stealth fighter, also joined the drill, it says. — AFP
September 29, 2022
US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in South Korea Thursday on a trip aimed at underscoring the strength of Washington's alliance with Seoul, a day after nuclear-armed North Korea tested more ballistic missiles.
Harris landed at Osan air base, an AFP reporter saw, following a trip to Tokyo where she attended the state funeral of assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
She is due to meet South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol and visit the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea.
September 27, 2022
US Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on a trip to South Korea later this week, the White House says.
Harris, who is currently in Tokyo to attend the state funeral of assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, will go to the DMZ on Thursday, a White House official says.
The move is likely to spark an angry reaction from North Korea, which denounced US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the "worst destroyer of international peace" when she visited the DMZ in August. — AFP
September 27, 2022
South Korea and the United States begin their first combined naval exercise near the peninsula in five years, leading to a warning by North Korea that the allies risked triggering war.
South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to beef up joint military drills with the United States, after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor.
"This exercise was prepared to demonstrate the strong will of the South Korea-US alliance to respond to North Korean provocations," the South's navy says in a statement. — AFP
September 26, 2022
South Korea and the United States begins their first combined naval exercise near the peninsula in five years on Monday, a day after Pyongyang conducted a ballistic missile launch.
Washington is Seoul's key security ally and stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect it from the nuclear-armed North.
South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to beef up joint military exercises with the United States, after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor.
"This exercise was prepared to demonstrate the strong will of the South Korea-US alliance to respond to North Korean provocations," the South's navy says in a statement.
The four-day exercise on South Korea's east coast will involve more than 20 vessels and an assortment of aircraft, which will conduct drills on anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare operations, tactical maneuvers and other maritime operations, it adds. — AFP
September 23, 2022
A US aircraft carrier arrives in South Korea Friday for the first time in nearly five years, ahead of joint drills in a show of force aimed at the nuclear-armed North.
The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan and vessels from its strike group docked in the southern port city of Busan, part of a push by Seoul and Washington to have more US strategic assets operating in the region.
South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to beef up joint military exercises with the United States, after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor. — AFP
August 22, 2022
The United States and South Korea began their biggest combined military drills since 2018 on Monday, Seoul said -- a move likely to enrage North Korea, which has been ramping up its nuclear threats.
Washington is Seoul's key security ally and stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect it from its nuclear-armed neighbour.
The two countries have long carried out joint exercises, which they insist are purely defensive but North Korea sees them as a rehearsal for invasion.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise marks the resumption of large-scale training sessions after they were scaled back due to Covid-19 and a bout of failed diplomacy with Pyongyang.
"The significance of this joint exercise is rebuilding the South Korea-US alliance and solidifying the combined defence posture by normalising... combined exercises and field training," the defence ministry said.
Details of the drills that run from August 22 to September 1 have not been released, but they usually include field exercises involving aircraft, warships and tanks -- with tens of thousands of troops.
During a meeting last week, the allies agreed to "expanding the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training," noting the increased volume of North Korean missile tests. -- AFP
May 21, 2022
US President Joe Biden and South Korea's newly sworn-in President Yoon Suk-yeol meet Saturday in Seoul to discuss fears of a nuclear weapon test by North Korea, even as the secretive dictatorship battles a raging Covid outbreak.
Biden began his day by paying respects at Seoul National Cemetery, where soldiers killed defending South Korea, including many who fought alongside US troops in the Korean War, are buried.
Wearing white gloves, the US president laid a wreath at the Memorial Tower, which honors tens of thousands of soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. — AFP
January 1, 2020
The United States is deeply disappointed by North Korea's threat to resume nuclear missile tests but wants peace rather than confrontation with Pyongyang, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
"If Chairman Kim has reneged on the commitments he made to President Trump it's deeply disappointing," Pompeo said after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an end to moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
"We have lived up to our commitments. We continue to hold out hope that he will live up to his," the top US diplomat told CBS television.
"President Trump has taken an approach where we have tried to create a diplomatic pathway. We hope that the North Koreans will reconsider, that they will continue down that pathway.... We want peace not confrontation." -- AFP
December 7, 2019
Seoul says South Korea's President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump agreed during a phone conversation to maintain dialogue with the nuclear-armed North, with the two allies noting the situation had become "grave".
Denuclearisation negotiations have been at a standstill since a summit in Hanoi broke up in February and pressure is rising as an end-of-year deadline to offer concessions, set by Pyongyang for Washington, approaches.
The 30-minute talk was the first conversation between the US President and the South Korean leader since they met at the UN General Assembly in New York in September. — AFP
November 14, 2019
US military exercises with South Korea could be scaled back to aid diplomacy with the nuclear-armed North, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, as Pyongyang warned it was running out of patience.
The North has long protested joint military drills, which it condemns as preparations for invasion, and has set Washington an end-of-year deadline to come up with a new offer in deadlocked negotiations on its weapons programmes.
The US and South Korea last year cancelled several joint drills in the wake of the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un, but are due to carry out a combined air exercise later this month.
"We will adjust our exercise posture either more or less depending on what diplomacy may require," Esper told reporters on board his plane to Seoul, where he started an Asian tour Thursday. — AFP
November 14, 2019
Defense Secretary Mark Esper says US military exercises with South Korea could be scaled back to aid diplomacy with the nuclear-armed North as Pyongyang warned it was running out of patience.
The North has long protested joint military drills, which it condemns as preparations for invasion, and has set Washington an end-of-year deadline to come up with a new offer in deadlocked negotiations on its weapons programmes.
The US and South Korea last year cancelled several joint drills in the wake of the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un, but are due to carry out a combined air exercise later this month. — AFP
September 20, 2019
The US government announces that its authorities for the first time filed a complaint against South Korea under environmental rules of the free trade pact between Seoul and Washington, over illegal fishing.
The US Trade Representative's office says it "intends to seek environment consultations" with Seoul under the terms of the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the first step in a formal trade complaint.
The trade representative's office cites a government report that named South Korea, saying the country failed to stop its vessels from "engaging in fishing activities that violate conservation and management measures." — AFP
September 10, 2019
North Korea on Tuesday fired projectiles toward the sea, South Korea's military said, hours after Pyongyang said it is willing to hold working-level talks with the United States in late September.
Negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have been gridlocked since a second summit between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in February ended without a deal.
North Korea twice launched "unidentified projectiles" Tuesday morning in an easterly direction that flew approximately 330 kilometres (205 miles) from the Kaechon area in South Pyongan province, according to the South Korean military. -- Agence France-Presse
August 9, 2019
South Korean President Moon Jae-in appoints a new ambassador to the US who has described Donald Trump as "treacherous", only a month after Britain's envoy to Washington had to step down over his criticisms of the US president.
In the early 2000s, Lee Soo-hyuck, a career diplomat before becoming a ruling party lawmaker, is Seoul's chief negotiator in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.
Now he will be responsible for guiding the relationship between Seoul and Washington, who have not always seen eye-to-eye over the nuclear-armed North or their own ties. — AFP
August 1, 2019
A Pentagon official says the US and South Korea will press ahead with joint military exercises, defying demands from a furious Pyongyang for their cancellation as it carries out a series of weapons tests.
North Korea fired what Seoul called two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday after two similar launches last week, one of which Pyongyang described as a "solemn warning to the South Korean warmongers" over the planned military drills.
The joint exercises are set to begin on Monday and last for just over two weeks after the US and South Korea scaled them down earlier this year amid a flurry of diplomatic exchanges with the North. — AFP
July 20, 2019
US President Donald Trump says he remained at the ready to help South Korea and Japan solve their lingering dispute over World War II-era forced labor that has blighted their trade ties.
After South Korea's high court ordered Japanese firms that used forced labor to compensate victims, Tokyo in early July restricted exports of chemicals vital to Seoul's world-leading chip and smartphone industry in an escalation of their decades-old row.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said Japan's actions are politically motivated and have caused an "unprecedented emergency" for his country's export-driven economy. — AFP
June 26, 2019
South Korean President Moon Jae-in dismisses the idea that nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington had stalemated but stressed patience was needed to bridge a 70-year "sea of mistrust".
In written answers to questions submitted by leading media, Moon -- who brokered talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year -- also urges Pyongyang to resume the dialogue to show its desire to denuclearise.
Moon is set to host the US leader this weekend as he tries to rekindle nuclear talks that have stalled since the collapse of a second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi in February. — AFP
A US official says the US military and South Korea are planning to "discontinue" annual large-scale military exercises as President Donald Trump pursues efforts to improve ties with North Korea.
The comment from the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, came shortly after the conclusion of Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, which ended without a formal agreement but with both sides suggesting they will keep talking. — AFP