Free Republic

Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the Korean Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea on Thursday as part of her visit to South Korea, a White House official said. Harris’ trip will include site visits at the DMZ, meetings with service members, and an operational briefing from US commanders, the official said, reiterating the US’ commitment “to stand beside” South Korea in the face of “any threats” posed by North Korea. Harris, the official added, “will reflect on the shared sacrifice of tens of thousands of American and Korean soldiers who fought and died together, and will reaffirm...

South Korea is sending military forces to respond to the seizure of one of its tankers by Iran, an endeavor in which it is seeking to work with other nations operating in the region Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard announced Monday that its Zulfiqar fleet had seized a South Korean vessel operating in the Islamic Republic's First Naval District in the Persian Gulf "due to a series of violations of marine environmental laws" after it departed from Saudi Arabia's Al-Jubail port. The ship, Hankuk Chemi, was said to be transporting up to 7,200 tons of oil-based chemicals, and carrying a crew...

According iTWire, two of the world's largest mobile phone vendors, Samsung and Huawei, are discussing a possible agreement in which Samsung will assist Huawei by providing advanced chips required by 5G networks. In return, Samsung will take some of Huawei's global mobile phone market share. With about 600,000 5G base station contracts, it is evident that Huawei is more focused on its telecommunications equipment business. In contrast, Samsung is dependent on its mobile phone business; the deal, therefore, makes sense and benefits both parties. The US has announced a new set of restrictions (details of which are to be announced...

South Korea Plans Construction of Aircraft Carrier Within 10 Years 22:00 23.07.2019 Seoul plans to have a landing platform helicopter (LPH), a type of light aircraft carrier, in the water in the next 10 years, a government insider told Defense News for a Tuesday article. The news comes amid a massive South Korean fleet buildup aiming at a blue-water navy. The new ship will have roughly 30,000 tons of displacement - that's roughly the size of the US Navy's Tarawa-class Amphibious Assault Ships (AAS), and twice the size of the Republic of Korea Navy's two existing LPHs. "The plan of...

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's prime minister offered to resign Sunday over the government's handling of a deadly ferry sinking, blaming "deep-rooted evils" and irregularities in a society for a tragedy that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing.

South Korea has long taken unusual pains to keep people from aerially photographing its presidential palace. On a mountainous hiking trail that winds behind the blue-roofed palace, cameras are restricted. The satellite mapping service produced by Naver — Korea’s version of Google — resorts to a Photoshop trick, depicting the Blue House, set just north of Seoul’s downtown, as a bushy forest.Such covertness is often excused as the duty the of a country technically at war. Decades ago, North Korean commandos tried to raid the palace. Pyongyang could presumably plan worse.It was with a degree of chagrin, then, that South...

Graphene is slated as the major breakthrough of this century. Infact it could very well propel the semiconductor a couple of decades easily (compared to the performance trend via Moore’s law ). Graphene transistors are more than capable of being clocked at 500Ghz so you get the idea of what Samsung is claiming to have achieved: a replicateable production process of Graphene nodes.Graphene.Experimental gFET Graphene Production – Scientific breakthrough of this century to be used in CPUs* of wearable devicesOK, I admit, I was being slightly sarcastic when I wrote the headline. It seems sort of ironic that if Samsung’s...

North Korea on Wednesday delayed the entry of South Koreans to a joint industrial complex in a rare move amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, the South's Unification Ministry said. "North Korea has not yet given us the daily permission for the entry of 484 South Koreans into Kaesong today," a South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman told AFP. The border crossing usually takes place at 8:30 am (2330 GMT), but there has been no word from the North's officials for almost an hour, she said. The delay sparked fears the North could carry out its threatened shutdown of the...

Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite connected to ISAF Commander John Allen and former CIA Director David Petraeus, is an "honorary consul" of South Korea, a diplomatic official with direct knowledge of the arrangement told The Cable. "She is an ‘honorary consul' of the Republic of Korea," the official said. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network." The position of honorary consul is symbolic and has no official responsibilities, the official said. "She does not work as a real consul. They play a role to improve the relationship between the ROK and the U.S.," the...

Navy to Operate Mistral Missiles for First Time (Source: Republic of Korea Ministry of National Defense; dated Aug. 23, 2011) The South Korean Navy is planning to load man-portable Surface to Air Missiles (SAM), so-called Mistral, to all patrol boats in operation in due order to use them in antiaircraft and antiship defense purpose. “The Navy will load Mistrals onto patrol boats that are deployed in the Yellow Sea [near the Northern Limit Line] starting the end of this month,” said an official under the Naval Operations Command. “Eventually, all patrol boats will be equipped with such weapon and we...

S. Korean newspaper,The Chosun Daily, reported yesterday that S. Korean Army fieled 500km range(500kg warhead) ballistic missile in 2009. Agency for Defense Development,a government agency, started the development in 2007 and the Army filded them in late 2009. this mobile-launcher type missile has about 950 submunitions inside warhead. its shape and size is similiar to Russian SS-21. S. Korean Army has domestically developed Hyunmoo-1(ballistic, 180km range), Hyunmoo-2A(ballistic, 300km), Hyunmoo-2B(ballistic,500km ), Hyunmoo-3A(cruise, 500km), Hyunmoo-3B(cruise, 1,000km), Hyunmoo-3C(cruise, 1,500km). also has imported ATACMS(180km,300km) S. Korean Navy has 500km range cruise misssiles, too. this missile is naval version of Hyunmoo-3A that launches from KVLS(Korean...

even after cease fire on July, 1953, The Korean War was continued unofficially in the shadows. thousands of lives were perished in secret ops. nobody admitted this truth until recently. they are Special Intelligence NCOs... recruit poster of Defense Intelligence Command,nowdays.

a Video about KM-SAM CheolMae-2 and XK2 MBT Active Protection System video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=T-tCWaeyvu4KM-SAM CheolMae(Iron Eagle)-2 XK2 Black Panther KM-SAM Iron Eagle-2 is due to be completed this year. the Multi-Function Radar is co-developed by SamsungThales & Russian Almaz-Antey. the missile is indigenous one. XK2 Black panther is scheduled to start mass production this year.

Cooperation eyed on overseas ops The government plans to pursue a military agreement that ensures reciprocal provision of supplies and services between the Self-Defense Forces and the South Korean military when conducting international cooperative activities, sources said Monday. Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa is expected to convey the plan for the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement to his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan Jin when he visits next Monday. Kitazawa is also expected to confirm the need to accelerate bilateral talks to conclude the General Security of Military Information Agreement, the sources said. Tokyo has acknowledged a growing need to strengthen military...

there were hands full of Soviet tanks in ROK Army for OPFOR role. now they got 35 T-80U and 70 BMP-3 in the inventory. those weren't imported for OPFOR role but fielded in the front line, in 3rd Armored Brigade. check the source URL for more info. T-80U BMP-3

Greetings from S. Korea! I wrote a article about K21 IFV in my blog. there aren't much explanation about K21 IFV, but lots of pics and videos instead. this is the article: http://shutwho.blogspot.com/2010/03/k21-ifv-aka-nifv.html I spent almost a month to search infos about K21. and if you don't have broadband internet service, I advise you do not click that link. lots of traffic. Regards, S. J. Kim a.k.a blue_shark

Boeing [on Nov. 8 delivered three F-15K Slam Eagles to the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) at Daegu Air Base. The company delivered the first three of 21 F-15Ks it is producing under the Next Fighter II contract to the ROKAF in September. The remaining 15 aircraft will be delivered through March 2012. "Boeing is honored to deliver these highly advanced fighters to the ROKAF," said Roger Besancenez, Boeing F-15 Program vice president. "We will continue to work closely with our ROKAF customers to prepare for upcoming deliveries that will provide them with superior air combat capability, as we...

South Korea will swiftly and strongly respond with force until North Korea surrenders if the communist state launches another assault, the South's new defence minister said Saturday. Kim Kwan-Jin issued the warning during his inauguration speech after President Lee Myung-Bak officially appointed the retired four-star general as the new defence chief following a parliamentary confirmation hearing Friday. Kim Kwan-Jin replaced Kim Tae-Young, who came under fire over the military's allegedly feeble response to North Korea's deadly shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island near the tense Yellow Sea border on November 23. "If North Korea launches another military attack on our...

Lockheed Martin has signed a contract with the Republic of Korea to provide the nation four C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. Korea’s new Super Hercules will be the longer fuselage or “stretched” combat delivery variant. Deliveries will be in 2014 and the contract also contains a two-year support program including aircrew and maintenance training. Korea joins 14 other nations that have selected the proven C 130J. “Because it is a legacy C-130 operator, the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) is able to take advantage of common spares, support equipment and a sound knowledge of the C-130 to reduce costs and...

China supports the "independent and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula" and cannot afford to give the North Korean regime the impression it has a blank cheque to act any way it wants, Chinese officials based in Europe said today. The officials, who asked not to be identified, spoke after the Guardian revealed that senior figures in Beijing, exasperated with North Korea behaving like a "spoiled child", had told their South Korean counterparts that China was leaning towards acceptance of reunification under Seoul's control. China's moves to distance itself from the North Korean regime were revealed in the latest tranche...