Summary of external news of North Korea this week

SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of external news of North Korea this week.

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(3rd LD) Ministry seeks early counter-rocket system rollout with plan to resume major allied field training

SEOUL -- South Korea's defense ministry vowed Friday to push for an early deployment of a counter-rocket system to fend off threats from a possible North Korean salvo mixing missiles and long-range artillery that put the greater Seoul area within range.

During a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup outlined the plan and other defense priorities, including resuming larger-scale South Korea-U.S. field training and accelerating efforts to build the "three-axis" system against the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats

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(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S. poised to reinstate combined drills abolished in 2018

SEOUL -- South Korea and the United States are expected to revive a comprehensive combined military exercise abolished in 2018, Seoul officials said Thursday, amid the allies' efforts to reinforce deterrence against North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The exercise set for Aug. 22-Sept. 1 is likely to combine the computer simulation-based command post training, field maneuvers and Ulchi civil contingency drills -- a makeup tantamount to a revival of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) drills.

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(LEAD) S. Korean gov't releases footage of two N.K. fishermen being repatriated in 2019

SEOUL -- South Korea's unification ministry released footage Monday showing two North Korean fishermen repatriated across the inter-Korean border in 2019.

The highly unusual move came amid a heated political controversy over whether it was right and appropriate for the then liberal Moon Jae-in administration to have sent them back to the North, where they must have faced harsh punishment.
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