Korea Herald
May 5, 2022

South Korea’s intelligence agency joins NATO’s cyber defense center as first in Asia

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service became a member of a cyberdefense center for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the state agency said on Thursday.

According to NIS, it has been admitted as a contributing participant for NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, a cyberdefense group based in Tallinn, Estonia. It is the first time an Asian country joins the group.

The NATO CCDCOE [was] established in May 2008.

…NIS has participated in the world’s largest international live-fire cyberdefense exercise, Locked Shields, two years in a row since 2020, the spy agency said.

With Korea’s membership, NATO CCDCOE now has 32 countries as its official members – 27 NATO member countries, which are categorized as sponsoring nations, and five contributing participants which are non-NATO countries.

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Yonhap News Agency
May 5, 2022

Defense chiefs of S. Korea, U.S. reaffirm ‘robust’ alliance in call over N.K. missile launch

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States held phone talks Thursday and agreed to closely cooperate to enhance the allies’ combined defense posture, Seoul’s defense ministry said, a day after North Korea’s ballistic missile launch.

During the talks, Defense Minister Suh Wook and his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, condemned the North’s launch….

“(They) agreed to closely cooperate on deterrence through the strong South Korea-U.S. alliance and enhancement of the combined defense posture,” the ministry said in a press release.

Austin reaffirmed the U.S.’ “iron-clad” security commitment to the defense of South Korea, the ministry said.