The Navy plans to send just two destroyers to a US-led multinational maritime exercise slated to kick off near Hawaii in August, a military source said Sunday, as the biannual exercise is expected to be held in a scaled-down manner due to the new coronavirus. The Navy will send a 7,600-ton Aegis destroyer and a 4,400-ton destroyer to the Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC) scheduled for Aug. 17-31, according to the source. In 2018, South Korea sent a submarine, a patrol plane and some 700 tr

US Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams has renewed the military‘s public health emergency over the new coronavirus for another 90 days to maintain the necessary authority for implementing anti-virus measures, his office said Saturday. USFK first declared the Public Health Emergency over the COVID-19 virus on May 25 and extended the status for another month on April 24. The latest extension will keep the measure in effect through Aug. 20. “The renewed PHE enables the Commande

Sixty South Koreans who were stranded in Africa due to suspended air travel amid the coronavirus pandemic returned home late Friday on a charter flight. South Korea’s military ran the flight Monday to rotate a batch of troops for the Hanbit Unit stationed in South Sudan, and on the way home, Korean residents in Africa boarded the plane in adjoining Ethiopia. Thirty-six had come from Ghana, 13 from Kenya, 10 from Ethiopia and 1 from Sudan. Medical and other support staff were on board to

Lew Byong-hun, the first deputy commander of the Combined Forces Command jointly operated by South Korea and the United States, died Thursday at age 96, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a press release. A former four-star Army general, Lew was one of the joint command’s founding members in 1978. After leaving the command a year later, he went on to serve as chairman of Korea’s JCS until 1981. US Forces Korea Commander Robert Abrams, who heads the joint command, of

South Korean Vice Defense Minister Park Jae-min held phone talks with his British counterpart Wednesday and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in dealing with the coronavirus, the defense ministry said. During the conversation with Annabel Goldie, a life peer and minister of state at the British defense ministry, Park shared South Korea's experience in stemming the spread of COVID-19 in its initial stages and explained the military's active contribution to containing the virus. "Minis

Planned training by a group of special forces troops in the United States has been called off due to the new coronavirus, a military source said Wednesday. About 30 members of the Army's Special Warfare Command were originally scheduled to visit the US military's Fort Irwin National Training Center for combined training this month, but the plan has been canceled. It is the latest in a series of combined training exercises between South Korea and foreign troops that have been postponed amid th

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Suh Wook shared the military's experience responding to the new coronavirus with foreign commanders during a video conference Wednesday and pledged continued cooperation in fighting unconventional security threats, his office said. On the first day of the two-day Indo-Pacific Landpower Conference, which kicked off earlier in the day, the general discussed South Korea's experience conducting a massive training exercise in during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the

US Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday it will ease quarantine restrictions this week for all areas but Seoul and nearby regions, allowing service members to dine at restaurants and conduct other off-base activities except visiting bars and clubs. The decision to lower the Health Protection Condition (HPCON) level by one notch to the second-lowest "Bravo" from the current "Charlie" level came as South Korea has seen a marked slowdown in the number of new coronavirus cases. The

South Korea’s military said Sunday that it will screen all new conscripts for the novel coronavirus, starting Monday for eight weeks, testing about 6,300 draftees a week. Before trainee soldiers join boot camps, they will be swabbed and their specimens will be pooled together and tested for COVID-19 infections, the ministry said. The decision comes in response to the recent surge in infections among young people linked to a cluster that emerged in Seoul’s nightclubs and bars in

The 14-day-long examination period required for South Koreans' tours to the demilitarized border village of Panmunjom may be cut to a three-day process, the United Nations Command (UNC) said Sunday. The UNC said it is currently discussing the simplification plan with the South Korean government. "The 14-day examination required for Koreans wishing to visit the Joint Security Area (JSA) is South Korea's own regulation which the UNC has been implementing for over than 10 years for South K

South Korea is discussing with China when to repatriate remains of Chinese troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War as a planned repatriation event set for this spring was canceled due to the coronavirus, officials said Saturday. In 2014, Seoul pledged to send remains of fallen Chinese soldiers to their homeland in a symbolic gesture of friendship, and it has since repatriated 599 sets of remains, including 10 last year. "This year's event was also supposed to take place in around Ma

Cheong Wa Dae confirmed Friday it convened a meeting with military officials in charge of public relations with regard to North Korea's strong criticism of South Korea's recent border island drills. Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok stressed that the meeting was to discuss media-related policy, not to "reprimand" the military. Earlier in the day, the Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo newspaper carried a front-page report claiming that Moon's office had called in senior military officers an

All small firearms at South Korea's border guard posts have been newly inspected, but no problems have been found, an official said Friday, following revelations that the response to the North's recent gunfire was slow due to a machine gun malfunction. The Joint Chiefs of Staff official made the remark during a press briefing, promising to beef up regular inspections of weapons to prevent a similar incident from happening again and maintain a full readiness posture. The military has come unde

South Korea discovered 11 bone fragments, believed to be from soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border with North Korea, the defense ministry said Thursday. The pieces were found during a demining and excavation operation on Arrowhead Ridge from last Friday through Wednesday, according to the ministry. The ridge located in Cheorwon, some 90 kilometers northeast of Seoul, was one of the fiercest battlefields during the war. Since April 20 wh

A suspicious package found at the post office of the Yongsan base of US Forces Korea on Thursday turned out to be a hair grooming kit, a USFK official said. Earlier in the day, the US military closed part of the garrison in Seoul, suspended traffic and urged its personnel to avoid the area "due to the investigation of a suspicious package." "At approximately 1 p.m., the package was cleared by the Directorate of Emergency Services. ... This package did not pose a threat since it