Free Republic

Construction of a natural gas pipeline from Russia to South Korea is still possible despite obvious difficulties in its implementation and the development of new Russian LNG projects aimed at Asian exports, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. Russia is actively developing LNG projects, including in the northern Yamal Peninsula and in its Far Eastern regions, in the proximity to South Korea, but supplies of pipeline gas to this Asian country are also possible, Putin said in an interview with South Korea's KBS, broadcast by state-run Russian 24 TV network. One of the option to organize pipeline gas supplies is to...

A South Korean man is behind bars in the Rio Grande Valley after being arrested in a failed to plot to smuggle Asian immigrants. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 53-year-old Gwang Jun Han in Brownsville on Sunday evening. Federal court records show Han was involved in a disturbance with two men. Brownsville police detained three illegal immigrants from China and another one from South Korea at the scene. Border Patrol agents learned that one man at the scene had paid Han to smuggle two of his adult children from China. Han appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan in Brownsville...

Nov 4 (Reuters) - A retired top U.S. Air Force general on Monday said South Korea will need Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets in the short term since Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 will not be able to carry a full load of weapons until after South Korea needs to replace its aging F-4 and F-5 fighters. Ron Fogleman, who works as a consultant to Boeing and also heads the board of Alliant Techsystems Inc, a big F-35 supplier, said South Korea would eventually need some F-35s, with their greater "stealth" or ability to evade enemy radar. But Boeing's F-15 offered...

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has displayed two conceptual models for the country’s proposed KFX indigenous fighter programme at the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition. One model represents KAI’s in-house proposal for the programme, while the other represents the ambitions of Seoul’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD). KAI’s proposal is for a single-engined aircraft based largely on systems developed for the country’s T-50 advanced jet trainer. The company feels that this approach would be more cost effective and draw from its experience with the T-50, which had extensive design input from Lockheed Martin. Greg Waldron/Flightglobal The ADD concept is a...

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday it will allow doctors to perform remote-patient monitoring and treatment via telecommunications technology in 2015 to extend care to patients in far-flung areas. Remote monitoring is allowed for a limited number of diseases, but the ministry prohibits health care professionals from delivering treatment via telecommunications. “The advancement in technology signals that it’s high time to embrace telemedicine,” said Kwon Deok-cheol, a director of the ministry’s health care policy division, during a briefing. “Remote treatment will give us greater access to people in remote areas. It can also help doctors better assist patients...

One of the most critical changes in global energy flows happened this week. China inaugurated a 2,500 kilometre pipe to carry natural gas and oil from the Indian Ocean across Myanmar in southeast Asia and into southwest Yunnan province. The gas portion of the line became fully operational this week. The line is expected to carry over 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day into China. The twin oil line is expected to follow. This massive development has several key implications for the global energy balance. Myanmar's significant offshore natural gas reserves (and growing production) now have a "go-to"...

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea is nearing a decision to buy some Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets, but will likely keep its options open for a limited purchase of Boeing Co's F-15, sources familiar with the country's fighter competition said on Wednesday. South Korean officials could announce their plans as early as November to secure the funding needed to ensure initial deliveries of the F-35 in 2017, according to multiple sources who were not authorized to speak publicly. They cautioned that the decisions were not yet final, and an announcement could still be postponed if the decision-making process hits...

Korea is to get its first nude beach on the east coast in Gangwon Province. The Gangwon provincial government on Tuesday said it wants to set up the nude beach by 2017 to invigorate tourism. The site will be selected from recommendations or in a competition next year. It will open in 2017 once facilities have been installed and access to outsiders restricted. The regional government wants to benchmark popular nude beaches abroad.

SEOUL - South Korea has taken delivery of its first cargo shipped by a Korean firm via the Northern Sea route, as the government looks to increase use of the new shipping route opened up through the Arctic. A vessel chartered by Hyundai Glovis took 35 days to deliver a 44,000 ton cargo of naphtha from Port Ust Luga in Russia to Gwangyan Port, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Seoul, arriving late Monday, the Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Tuesday. Cargoes of coal, diesel and gas have made the trip through the new route opened...

China Asked Korea Not to Sell Jets to Philippines China asked Korea not to sell FA-50 fighter jets to the Philippines, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Saturday. The daily said Beijing made the request ahead of a summit in Seoul between President Park Geun-hye and Philippines President Benigno Aquino on Oct. 17. Korea declined, saying it cannot accept "interference" in arms exports, an issue of its national interest, according to the daily. In their meeting, Park thanked Aquino for Manila’s decision to buy the FA-50 jets and urged a speedy signing of the contract. A government official here said, "The Philippines...

A Palestinian girl has won the top prize at an essay contest held by Korea University. In an essay describing her reflections on how she became a fan of Korean pop music and dramas, Samir Maisa (19), a student at Al Quds University in Palestine, wrote, "I heard a saying that there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. I decided to choose the latter." She said that Korean dramas appeared in her life one day like a "miracle" to give her...

A massive fraud in local governments’ certifications of supposedly eco-friendly food products was investigated and public servants indicted, the prosecution said yesterday. The Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday announced the result of its investigation into alleged corruption in eco-friendly food product certifications. A 59-year-old deputy governor of Jangseong County in South Jeolla was indicted on charges of falsifying public records and dereliction of duty. Ten other people face prosecution in similiar schemes and all 11 are being detained until trials. The prosecutors said it will press charges against 15 others without detaining them. According to the prosecution, the deputy...

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean Navy has made a request to build three more Aegis destroyers to bolster defense against its Asian neighbors and North Korea amid increasing military tension due to territorial disputes, a military source said Wednesday. South Korea currently operates three 7,600-ton Aegis warships, but the Navy has sought to increase its fleet to cope with rising regional tension in light of Pyongyang's third nuclear test conducted earlier this year and ongoing territorial disputes between China and Japan. "The Navy made a request for three additional Aegis ships to the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

DAEGU, South Korea — Asia’s large-scale gas importers, long saddled with premium prices, say a cheaper alternative lies several thousand feet below North American soil, where companies are unlocking enormous gas reserves from shale rock. The shale boom has already revolutionized the gas market in the United States and Canada, giving both countries not only a reliable domestic supply but also the ability to sell overseas. Asian utility and gas company executives, speaking this week at a global energy forum here, have said that North America’s gas wealth could prove nearly as transformative across the world, leading to the first...

Full operational control of South Korean troops should not be handed over to Seoul in haste and out of political considerations, a U.S. academic says. Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the conservative Brookings Institution, made the recommendation in an article titled "Don't Rush the U.S.-Korea Command Change" on Tuesday. "In Korea, our preeminent concerns need to be unity of command and effectiveness of our combined deterrent against a still very potent North Korean threat," he said. "Ensuring fair burden-sharing is not the principal prism through which this issue should be viewed." The original decision was a political one, because then-President...

Some 3-thousand citizens, cultural leaders. and Prime Minister Chung Hong-won gathered in central Seoul for a national ceremony, marking the 567th anniversary of the invention and proclamation of Hangul, the Korean alphabet. "Hangul is the world's only writing system that has been proclaimed with a clear purpose and created with scientific principles. Its scientific superiority is globally acknowledged and it is a piece of world heritage for humankind." At the ceremony, six individuals and two groups were given national awards of merit for their contributions to research and promotion of the Korean language, followed by performances celebrating the event. This...

South Korea seeks stealth jet edge while North's MiGs age (Reuters) - South Korea's decision to reject a bid by Boeing (BA.N) to supply 60 warplanes and to re-issue a tender was made in the interests of stealth technology but may not be justified given North Korea's weak air capabilities, experts said. Lockheed Martin's (LMT.N) F-35A, previously considered too expensive, has shot to the front of the race for a multi-billion dollar deal after the Defence Ministry singled out a fifth-generation fighter as the preferred option. Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle, the only bid within budget, had been poised to win...

ANALYSIS: Seoul’s F-X III backdown raises thorny questions about competition Seoul’s decision to re-tender the F-X III competition for 60 fighters raises questions about the viability of a revised process, and greatly enhances the Lockheed Martin F-35’s chances of securing the deal. After announcing its decision not to move forward with an F-15 Silent Eagle acquisition, Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has yet to clarify how it plans to replace the South Korean air force’s McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Northrop F-5s. In an email to Flightglobal, Boeing was quick to register its dismay at Seoul’s announcement. “Boeing is...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's military shot and killed a man who undertook a rare attempt to enter North Korea on Monday by floating across a river that runs near the heavily militarized border, an official in Seoul said. It was not clear whether the man was a South Korean, the official said on condition of anonymity. The military was still trying to recover the body and investigating the incident, he said. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said South Korean guards had called out to the man to return. But he ignored the instructions, jumped into the Imjin River and...

Much has been made recently of the unique and ascendant role Turkey is playing in international relations. As a member of NATO, a diplomatic power broker in the Middle East and a rising international economic player, Turkey has become a novelty even in an era of unprecedented global cooperation and political interdependence. But this is actually nothing new. For more than half a century, Turkey has played this unique role, symbolized so succinctly by the bridge over the Bosporus River that links Asia to Europe, East to West. For the United States, the bridge to Turkey spans more than two...