Adblock Detected

Read

South Korea plans to conduct a flight test of two new reconnaissance planes in the United States this week

Read

South Korea plans to conduct a flight test of two new reconnaissance planes in the United States this week, which can help the country better detect signs of North Korean missile launches and other threats, officials said Monday.

The planes, part of the enhanced Baekdu program, will undergo their first flight tests in an airfield in Texas later this week, according to officials at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

The test is intended to examine the operability of the aircraft with internal mission equipment in development by local manufacturers including LIG Nex 1. The U.S. partner of the program is providing the technology to integrate them into the aircraft's central mission computer.

In a major upgrade program, the military is seeking to adopt and deploy the two updated spy planes by 2017. The new functions of the planes include the detection of electronic signals emitted by machines before the North fires missiles. They could also track down heat sources in the event of a missile launch.

If the plan moves ahead of schedule and there are no problems with performance, they can be deployed as early as this year, according to military sources.

The platform for the new spy planes is the France-based Dassault Aviation's Falcon 2000 jet, which is bigger in size compared to the military's fleet of four spy planes built on the Hawker 800 platform. These Hawker jets employ equipment that was developed some 20 years ago, making them less fit to deal with the latest conditions.

North Korea has been making strides in its nuclear and missile capabilities in recent years, having conducted its latest long-range rocket launch in early February.

Pyongyang claims the rocket placed a satellite into orbit, but most outsiders think the launch was a cover to test long-range missiles that, if completed, could hit the mainland U.S.

The communist country's progress in the development of submarine-launched ballistic missiles is also raising concerns since such a weapons system can allow the North to fire off a ballistic missile from an unexpected location under the sea. This kind of capability will make it that much harder to detect and intercept such missiles

DSME launches first Indonesian Type 209/1400 SSK

Read

North Korea fires missiles, liquidates Seoul's assets in its territory

Read

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution, as South Korean and U.S. forces conducted massive war games.
The North also announced on Thursday it has scrapped all agreements with the South on commercial exchange projects and would "liquidate" South Korean assets left behind in its territory.
North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles as well. The missiles fired on Thursday flew about 500 km (300 miles) off its east coast city of Wonsan and were likely from the Soviet-developed Scud series, South Korea's defense ministry said.
Japan, which is within range of the longer-range variant of Scud missiles or the upgraded Rodong missiles, lodged a protest through the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
North Korea often fires short-range missiles when tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang gets particularly upset about the annual U.S.-South Korea drills, which its says are preparations for an invasion.
The U.S. and South Korea remain technically at war with the North because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace agreement.
Around 17,000 U.S. military personnel are participating alongside some 300,000 South Korean troops in what South Korea's Defence Ministry has called the "largest-ever" joint military exercises.
North Korea on Sunday warned it would make a "pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to the exercises.
"LIQUIDATING" ASSETSAfter Thursday's missile launches, North Korea announced it would "liquidate" South Korean assets left behind in the Kaesong industrial zone and in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone.
Seoul suspended operations in the jointly-run zone last month as punishment for the North's rocket launch and nuclear test.
Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project. Thousands of South Koreans visited the resort between 1998 and 2008. Seoul ended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted zone.
North Korea is also livid about stepped up United Nations sanctions adopted last week following its recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch.
South Korea's foreign ministry said the Thursday's missile launches again violated a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions and it would refer the matter to the Council sanctions committee mandated to enforce the resolutions.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei described the situation on the Korean Peninsula as "complex and sensitive".
"All sides should stop their provocative words and deeds to avoid a further rise in tensions," he MINIATURISED WARHEADSNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles, state media reported on Wednesday, and called on his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea.
It was his first direct comment on the technology needed to deploy nuclear missiles. North Korean state media released photographs it said showed Kim Jong Un inspecting a spherical miniaturised warhead. State media has previously made that claim, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.
South Korea's defense ministry said it did not believe the North has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.
State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Kim's claim to have miniaturised nuclear warheads and accused him of "provocative rhetoric."
"I'd say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities," Kirby said.
The Pentagon said this week it had not seen North Korea demonstrate a capability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead. But Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the department was working on U.S. ballistic missile defences to be prepared.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb last month has been disputed by the U.S. and South Korean governments and many experts, who said the blast was too small to back it up

The annual US-South Korea military drill that freaks out North Korea is happening right now

Read

north korea accuses the us of using the exercises as a practice run for an invasion

Reuters

Amphibious assault vehicles of the South Korean Marine Corps throw smoke bombs as they move to land on shore during a U.S.-South Korea joint landing operation drill in Pohang March 31, 2014

South Korean and US troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in an annual test of their defenses against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an "all-out" offensive.

South Korea said the exercises would be the largest ever following North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month that triggered a UN Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions.

The joint US and South Korean exercises, known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, involves approximately 17,000 American troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans.

"Things could get dicey in the next couple months,"Bruce Klingner, a Korea expert at the Heritage Foundation told Marine Corps Times.

"We're already seeing North Korea starting to issue threats: If the US doesn't stop these exercises or doesn't cancel these exercises, North Korea may take appropriate action. They also highlight that there are a number of strategic assets that will be part of it: nuclear-capable submarines, B-52s, F-22s, etc., special forces Marines - all of which, in North Korean eyes, or the North Korean depiction, is a prelude to an attack on North Korea," Klingner said.

Reuters

Isolated North Korea has rejected criticism of its nuclear and rocket programs, even from old ally China, and last week leader Kim Jong Unordered his country to be ready to use nuclear weapons in the face of what he sees as growing threats from enemies.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea routinely issues threats of military action in response to the annual exercises that it sees as preparation for war against it.

The threat on Monday was in line with the usual rhetoric it uses to denounce the drills.

foal eagle involves 12500 us troops and approximately 200000 south korean military personnel

Reuters

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei noted that North Korea had already said it opposed the drills, adding that Beijing was "deeply concerned" about the exercises.

"China is linked to the Korean Peninsula. In terms of the peninsula's security, China is deeply concerned and firmly opposed to any trouble-making behavior on the peninsula's doorstep. We urge all sides to keep calm, exercise restraint and not escalate tensions," he told a daily news briefing.

The latest UN sanctions imposed on North Korea were drafted by the United States and China as punishment for its nuclear test and satellite launch, which the United States and others say was really a test of ballistic missile technology.

Department of Defense/Missile Defense Agency/Lockheed Martin

THAAD.

South Korea's spy agency said it would hold an emergency cyber-security meeting on Tuesday to check readiness against any threat of cyber attack from the North, after detecting evidence of attempts by the North to hack into South Korean mobile phones.

South Korea has been on heightened cyber alert since the nuclear test and the rocket launch.

South Korea and the US militaries began talks on Friday on the deployment of an advanced anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea.