South Korea's Lee urges talks with North to end Korean War — military to train 500,000 'drone warriors'

15 August 2026 | Seoul, South Korea — Updated 14:45 GMT

SEOUL – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called on Saturday for talks with North Korea to pursue peaceful coexistence, saying Seoul would seek safeguards to prevent conflict and noting the need to replace the peninsula's armistice with a "peace regime."

In a speech marking the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee said the two Koreas should hold a sit-down for coexistence.

He urged dialogue between North Korea and concerned parties to end the 1950-53 Korean war, which was stopped by a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, and said discussions could also explore measures to curb Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

Welcome to the latest world headlines — where peace overtures and military modernization collide on the Korean peninsula.

Lee said Seoul would take pre-emptive and sustained steps to ease tensions and build layered safeguards to contain escalation.

Lee's call largely builds on his pledge last year to respect North Korea's system and seek peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang.

Ties between North and South Korea remain frozen. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has abandoned Pyongyang's reunification policy, has described the South as its most hostile state and ordered stronger frontline defences.

North Korea has rebuffed Lee's engagement offers, criticised Seoul's plan for nuclear-powered submarines and denounced joint US-South Korean military drills as provocations.

On relations with Japan, Lee called for confronting the past while leaving open the future, and said he hoped to launch a new 60 years of peace and prosperity with Japan as a "close neighbour."

South Korea to train 500,000 military personnel to become 'drone warriors'

All of South Korea's military forces will be trained as drone operators in a sweeping overhaul of its warfare strategy, the defence minister has said.

The plan envisages training 500,000 authorised military personnel across the army, navy, air force and marines to become "drone warriors," the ministry said.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East had shown that drones were now a "gamechanger on the battlefield," Ahn said, warning North Korea was also continuing to develop its weapons capabilities, increasing threats to military and civilian facilities in the South.

The military planned to procure about 11,000 commercial drones for training purposes by the end of this year, rising to 60,000 by 2029, alongside more than 20,000 low-cost disposable combat drones by 2030.

Seoul also said it would fast-track a domestically developed long-range loitering munition dubbed K-Lucas. The system takes its name and concept from the American Lucas (low-cost uncrewed combat attack system) drone, itself reverse-engineered from Iran's Shahed-136 suicide drone, which Russia deploys extensively in Ukraine.

South Korea's plan includes expanding counter-drone systems such as laser and high-power microwave weapons.

North Korea's drone capabilities growing

The announcement comes against a backdrop of concern about North Korea's drone capabilities and follows a deeply embarrassing episode for Seoul's security forces in 2022 when five small North Korean drones breached South Korean airspace.

One entered the no-fly zone above the presidential office in Seoul. The military scrambled jets and attack helicopters and fired about 100 shots, failing to down a single drone.

North Korea's drone capabilities have grown considerably, in part through its deepening military partnership with Russia, which analysts say has given Pyongyang access to battlefield data and tactics it would otherwise have taken years to develop.

Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, giving its military direct exposure to drone warfare at scale.

North Korea announced on Friday that leader Kim Jong-un had overseen tests of tactical ballistic missiles and an upgraded rocket artillery system with a firing range of 90km in what Pyongyang said were efforts to bolster firepower along its southern border.

Kim has, meanwhile, pledged to expand North Korea's nuclear arsenal at what he called an "exponential rate," describing nuclear expansion as the "most correct and unique way" to confront an increasingly unstable world.

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