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South Korea has increased its budget to fund North Korea-related projects this year, government data showed on Thursday, with a new president seeking closer relations due to take office in Seoul and signs of an opening from Pyongyang. South Korea's Ministry of Unification said parliament had approved a 9.1 percent rise in the inter-Korean cooperation fund this year to 1.1 trillion won ($1.03 billion). "The last offer for talks we made to North Korea was last summer, when the North was suffering from flood damage," said Park Soo-jin, a spokeswoman for the ministry. The two Koreas remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce, not a treaty, and relations plunged under South Korean President Lee Myung-bak who cut aid dramatically after the shooting of a South Korean tourist in the North in 2008.  Lee's single term ends in February when he will be replaced by Park Geun-hye, who has pledged engagement with the isolated and impoveri...

26 March: South Korean warship, Cheonan, sinks, killing 46 sailors. 20 May: Panel says a North Korean torpedo sank the ship; Pyongyang denies involvement. July-September: South Korea and US hold military exercises; US places more sanctions on Pyongyang. 29 September: North holds rare party congress seen as part of father-to-son succession move. 29 October: Troops from North and South Korea exchange fire across the land border. 12 November: North Korea shows US scientist new - undeclared - uranium enrichment facility. 23 November: North shells island of Yeonpyeong, killing at least four South Koreans . 27 Nov-1 Dec: South Korea and US hold joint military drills. 6-12 Dec: South Korea stages live-fire military exercises

Newly appointed South Korean defense minister Kim Kwan-jin took office Saturday and vowed a strong military response that would force rival North Korea to surrender if it attacks the South again. Newly appointed Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin salutes during his inauguration ceremony at the South Korean Defense Ministry in Seoul on Saturday, "If North Korea carries out a military provocation on our territory and people again, we must retaliate immediately and strongly until they completely surrender," Kim Kwan-jin said in a speech Saturday to senior military officials. Kim also called for military readiness, saying North Korea would plot new provocations. He later visited the island targeted by the North Korean attack and vowed to take strong measures to ensure North Korea would not dare to make more provocations. He said the military would quickly hold firing drills if the weather permits, according to the Yonhap news agency. Before this, during a confirmation he...

In an ongoing show of force following a deadly North Korean attack on a front-line island, the US and Japan began one of their biggest-ever military exercises on Friday, mobilizing more than 44,000 troops, hundreds of aircraft and a US super carrier. The drills come just after the U.S. and South Korea concluded maneuvers in the Yellow Sea. The exercises brought immediate criticism from China, which is wary of having foreign navies off its shores and has been increasingly assertive over large swaths of waters in the south and east China seas, where some of the drills would take place. "At present, there are already enough of these kinds of military exercises. Under the present conditions, all relevant parties ought to do more to benefit the maintenance of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the region, and not the opposite," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. The Nov 23 North Korean attack killed two South Korean marines and two civilians on Yeonp...

NorthKorea has placed surface-to-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea, Yonhap news agency said, as the United States and South Korea began militarydrills and China called for emergency talks . Caption: The sun rises over a South Korean Navy mobile base off Yeonpyeong Island on November 28, 2010 five days after the North stunned the world by launching a barrage of shells and rockets at the island, killing two marines and two civilians. The United States and South Korea on November 28 began a major naval exercise designed to deter North Korea, after the communist state warned of "unpredictable consequences" if the drill goes ahead. China made clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead. South Korea said it would carefully consider China's suggestion. Caption: North  Korean preparation for war on 28th November 2010 South Korean President L...

North Korea South Korea Exchange Artillery Fire.

Military units of North Korea and South Korea exchanged gunfire near their border on October 29, 2010 (Friday), South Korean authorities said. However, no casualties were reported. The exchange happened after North Korean forces fired two rounds from a 14.5 millimeter machine gun at a South Korean military guard post near the border town of Chorwon, South Korea, about 73 miles (118 km) northeast of Seoul, according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff at South Korea. The incident occurred just two weeks before the G-20 summit to be held in  Seoul . The G-20 includes industrialized nations and developing economies, which focus on economic issues and economic policy coordination. Authorities said a total of 50,000 police and riot police will be deployed during the summit on November 11 and 12, according to Yonhap. The South Korean unit responded with three "warning shots" from a .50-caliber machine gun and warned the North Korean guard post by loudspeaker to desist, t...

Seoul military officials say the North Korea has an army unit of elite hackers. The comments came  when the question arises from Seoul officials and diplomats that hackers in China have stolen secrets on South Korea’s defense and foreign affairs by using bogus emails, the intelligence agency said Friday. The National Intelligence Service uncovered the hacking early this year and warned government offices about the danger of such emails, a spokesman said. Hackers sent emails in the names of South Korean diplomats, presidential aides and other people familiar to Seoul officials. Attached files containing viruses were disguised as important documents, such as analyzes on North Korea’s economy. When a recipient clicked on the attachment, the virus started downloading documents in his or her computer, the spokesman said. Lawmaker Lee Jung-Hyun of the ruling Grand National Party told parliament Thursday that a ‘considerable volume of classified documents’ was feared to have been lea...