Boo Jae-Won, head of the defence ministry's personnel planning bureau, said 12 combat branches will be opened up to female soldiers between 2012 and 2014.

"We will open up artillery and armour branches of the army to women," Boo was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying. The air force's air defence and the navy's fire control would also be opened.

The plan was to have women making up seven percent of all officers and five percent of non-commissioned officers by 2015 and 2017, respectively, he said.

As of the end of last year, about five percent of commissioned officers and three percent of NCOs were female.

The ministry said 6,957 women currently serve in the army, navy, air force and Marine corps but the total was expected to reach 11,500 by 2020.

All healthy South Korean men between 18-30 face conscription into the military for about two years. Women are exempt but can volunteer to serve as commissioned or non-commissioned officers.

In March the navy and air force announced plans to select female cadets for the Reserve Officer Training Corps programme. The army opened the corps to women last year for the first time since it started in 1963.

The main mission of the South's 650,000-strong armed forces is to deter any attack from North Korea's 1.2 million-strong military, but they also serve in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

The State Department said in a written response to journalists' questions it was "aware from press reports that Russia and North Korea have announced their intention to hold joint naval exercises next year."

"Any engagement with the North Koreans should be conducted in a way that does not detract from the international communitys clear message of concern about the Norths weapons programs, and the necessity for Pyongyang to do what is necessary to return to the Six Party talks," the statement said.

The Six Party talks, which includes Russia, China, Japan, the United States and the two Koreas, is aimed at scrapping the North Korean nuclear arsenal. Pyongyang quit the talks in April 2009 and conducted its second nuclear test a month later.

The decision to stage the unprecedented joint search and rescue naval operations was reached during a late August visit to Pyongyang by Russia's Eastern Military District commander, Igor Muginov, Interfax reported.

"The idea is to hold the joint rescue maneuvers next year," Muginov said in reference to a Japanese press report suggesting that the exercises could begin later this year.

Muginov's visit to Pyongyang for talks with one of the Stalinist state's top army commanders came less than a week after strongman Kim Jong-Il held rare talks in Siberia with President Dmitry Medvedev that focused on trade and economic assistance.

North Korea rarely stages joint maneuvers with other nations and Russia's involvement is expected to be watched closely by the United States and South Korea, which conduct regular war games in the region.