Free Republic

South Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye was arrested Friday morning in Seoul over bribery allegations which led to her impeachment and removal from office earlier this year. The Daily Caller reports: According to Reuters, Park was arrested after the Seoul Central District Court sided with prosecutors, claiming the 65-year-old former president posed a flight risk and could potentially tamper with evidence involved in the ongoing investigation. Park is accused of colluding with friend and advisor Choi Soon-sil of soliciting donations from Korean businesses, most notably Samsung, to foundations friendly to Park’s legislative agenda in exchange for political favors. The...

The United States has started to deploy attack drones to South Korea, a U.S. military spokesman said on Monday, days after it began to deploy an advanced anti-missile system to counter "continued provocative actions" by isolated North Korea. The drones, Gray Eagle Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) coming to South Korea are part of a broader plan to deploy a company of the attack drones with every division in the U.S. Army, the spokesman said. "The UAS adds significant intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to U.S. Forces Korea and our ROK partners," United States Forces Korea spokesman Christopher Bush said in...

SEOUL (Reuters) - The liberal politician expected to succeed disgraced Park Geun-hye as South Korea's next president could significantly soften Seoul’s stance toward North Korea and possibly delay deployment of a U.S. missile-defense system that has enraged China. A Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Park from office after upholding her impeachment over a corruption scandal involving "chaebol", the family-run conglomerates that dominate Asia's fourth-biggest economy, and which could also face reform under a liberal leader. A presidential election will be held by May 9 and opinion polls suggest South Koreans will opt for change by electing a liberal into the...

Eight justices of the Constitutional Court have unanimously upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in a historic ruling that will put an end to long-lasting political turmoil and social unrest triggered by a widespread corruption scandal involving Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.

AMERICAN military chiefs are sending nuclear bombers to the Korean peninsula as tensions in the region reach breaking point. North Korea and the US have been teetering on the brink of war for months after Kim Jong-un carried out a series of controversial missile launches. Earlier this week, trigger-happy Kim pushed his luck once more when he fired off four ballistic missiles into the seas near Japan. Now President Donald Trump is reportedly flying in B-1 and B-52 bombers – built to carry nuclear bombs – to show he’s had enough. South Korea and the US have also started their...

Any North Korean attack on an American ally will meet with an "overwhelming" counterattack from the United States, particularly if the regime uses nuclear weapons. "Due to some of the provocations out of North Korea and other challenges that we jointly face, I want to make certain that Article Five of our mutual defense treaty is understood to be as real to us today as it was a year ago, five years ago and as it will be a year and 10 years from now," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters before a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe...

JAPAN is recalling its ambassador to South Korea over a statue commemorating Korean “comfort women” forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels during World War Two, the government said on Friday. The term “comfort women” is a euphemism used for the girls and women who were subjected to the practice. South Korean activists estimate that there may have been as many as 200,000 Korean victims. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said the statue in the southern city of Busan was “extremely regrettable” and stated that Japan has asked for its removal.

South Korea's defense procurement agency Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) placed an order with Hyundai Heavy & Industries (HHI) on Tuesday to build two Daegu-class FFX-II frigates ahead of schedule to support the ailing local shipbuilding industry. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) launched the lead ship of the new Daegu-class FFX-II frigate for the Republic of Korea Navy (ROK Navy) on June 2, 2016. Key updates of the Batch II over the ASW-focused Batch I include VLS and full electric propulsion system, as well as a larger hangar that can accomodate a 10-ton helicopter (Batch-I has hangar for lighter...

South Korea started on Wednesday construction of a new 3,000-tonne submarine that could be equipped with ballistic missiles, local media reported. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Korea is expected to build the Chang Bogo-III batch 1 submarine, which would be the third vessel of this class in the national navy, as part of its plan to increase maritime capacities in the context of threats posed by the North, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the country's arms procurement body. Hyundai Heavy Industries company was expected to build the 3,000-tonne vessel, which would be able to...

China remains opposed to unilateral sanctions against North Korea taken without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, the country’s chief negotiator on the North’s nuclear program was quoted Saturday as saying. Wu Dawei also told his South Korean counterpart in talks Friday that China is “adamantly opposed” to the South’s deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system that China says poses a threat to its own security, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. […] China demands that South Korea “give weight to China’s concerns” about the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile system, which is intended...

South Korean President impeached !

SEOUL, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- President-elect Donald Trump told South Korea's Park Geun-hye on Thursday that under his administration the United States would be with Seoul "100 percent" in tackling North Korea's nuclear provocations. The 10-minute phone call between Trump and Park occurred a day after the Republican nominee's victory made headlines and took the world by surprise. Markets in Asia, including South Korea, reacted negatively to the news on Wednesday, but bounced back on Thursday, the BBC reported. The conversations between Trump and Park focused on themes that emphasized continuity of current U.S. North Korea policy: strengthening the U.S.-South...

Main picture: NK Pro A new modern-style corvette with low-observable radar characteristics has been spotted in North Korea’s northeastern port of Najin in Rason, high-resolution photos obtained exclusively by NK Pro have revealed. Two sets of photos taken during different periods in 2016 show a heavily armed, 77-meter long vessel with radar cross-section (RCS) reducing features docked adjacent to a helicopter-capable but minimally armed support ship. Equipped with two Kumsong-3 anti-ship cruise missile launchers, a short-range surface-to-air missile system, torpedo launchers and rotary canons, the reduced-RCS corvette also includes capacity for large caliber naval cannon, the NK Pro analysis reveals....

Dear people, I sincerely apologize for having you indescribably disappointed and concerned in regards to the scandal with Choi Soon-sil. Above all, I feel so sorry for breaking your hearts irreparably when you trusted in me to be responsible with state affairs. I also apologize to government officials and incumbents who devoted themselves to working with me, as well as business people who assisted me with goodwill. I feel terribly sorry for all the illegal acts done by Choi, as I have initially wished my decisions would ultimately benefit the nation's economy and people's welfare. It's all due to my...

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) announced on 24 October that it had won a contract to build two frigates for the Philippine Navy (PN). The lot 1 contract covers the ship platform and launchers. This contract for the most advanced vessels the PN has ever operated was signed during a ceremony in Manila. A notice of award worth PHP15.7 billion (US$337 million) for these South Korean-built warships was delivered last month. HHI offered its HDF-3000 design as the basis for the PN requirement, upon which South Korean Incheon-class frigates are also based. The company said in a press release, ‘The frigates...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to allow Japan to obtain nuclear weapons, stressing that Japan’s pacifist Constitution was written by the United States. “Does he not understand we wrote Japan’s constitution to say they could not be a nuclear power?” Biden said in a speech he delivered in Scranton, Pa., for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “Where was he when in school?” Biden asked. “Someone who lacks this judgment cannot be trusted,” he said. “He’s not qualified to know the [nuclear] codes,” the U.S. vice president said. Trump has suggested that...

SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to buy more Taurus air-to-surface missiles that can strike North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, military officials said Tuesday. "The military has recently decided to acquire 90 more Taurus missiles to further beef up its anti-nuclear and anti-missile capabilities. The process to purchase the additional missiles is underway," a defense ministry official told Yonhap News Agency. Some 170 Taurus missiles are already scheduled to be deployed with the Air Force. The North's fifth nuclear test last month and continued ballistic missile launches resulted in the additional purchase. When the deployment is complete,...

South Korea has had no discussions whatsoever with the United States about a preemptive strike on North Korea, Seoul's ambassador to Washington said. Amb. Ahn Ho-young made the remark during a parliamentary audit of his embassy on Saturday as talk of removing North Korea's nuclear facilities through a military strike has surfaced in the U.S. in the wake of Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test. "We've had no such discussions at least here in Washington," Ahn said during the audit held at the embassy. "We've never received a request from the U.S. government for discussions about a preemptive strike." Last month, an...

<p>SEOUL, South Korea - A North Korean soldier crossed the border that separates the country from one of its major rivals, South Korea, to defect, the South Korean Army announced on Thursday.</p> <p>The military authorities are now investigating the North Korean soldier who defected by crossing the central-eastern zone of the military demarcation line located inside the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) wide Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries, the South Korea Defense High Command said.</p>

Samsung plans to issue a software update for its recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that will prevent them from overheating by limiting battery recharges to 60 percent. The front page of the Seoul Shinmun, a South Korean newspaper, carried a Samsung advertisement on Tuesday announcing the software update for any users of the Note 7 who may be disregarding its recall notice and continuing to use the smartphone. "It is a measure to put consumer safety first but we apologize for causing inconvenience," the advertisement by Samsung Electronics said. The update for South Korean users will start Sept. 20, it...