NK weekly-external news
Summary of external news of North Korea this week
SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of external news of North Korea this week.
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Air Force begins regular large-scale exercise
SEOUL -- The Air Force said Friday it kicked off a regular large-scale exercise to bolster its combat capabilities and ensure the country's defense posture.
The eight-day Soaring Eagle exercise began at an air base in Cheongju, 112 kilometers south of Seoul, amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of North Korea's firing of a purported solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
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S. Korea-U.S. war plan should factor in N. Korea's possible use of nuclear arms: expert
SEOUL -- South Korea and the United States should take into account the possibility of North Korea using nuclear weapons in a contingency when they map out wartime operational plans and strategies, a government expert said Wednesday.
Cho Nam-hoon, senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, made the remarks in a meeting with reporters on how to deter and respond to evolving North Korean nuclear threats.
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(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S., Japan working on missile warning consultation group
SEOUL -- South Korea, the United States and Japan are working on launching a consultation group for sharing missile warning data in real time, a presidential official said Tuesday.
"The three countries' military authorities are currently building the system," the official told reporters. "We will do our best to build the system at an early date."
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(LEAD) Top S. Korean general, U.S. Army chief discuss deterrence against N. Korean threats
SEOUL -- South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum met with the visiting U.S. Army chief in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss bilateral cooperation against growing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, his office said.
The meeting between Kim and Gen. James C. McConville, the U.S. Army's chief of staff, came after President Yoon Suk Yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, adopted the Washington Declaration -- entailing joint efforts to sharpen the credibility of America's extended deterrence -- at their White House summit last month.
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