Top nuclear envoys of S. Korea, US, Japan to meet in Hawaii for talks on NK

Top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the US and Japan will hold a trilateral meeting this week in Hawaii to discuss ways to restart the stalled talks and rid the North of its nuclear weapons, amid escalating tension after the regime’s back-to-back missile launches. 　 South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Noh Kyu-duk, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will meet with his American and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakos

Feb. 7, 2022

Presidential front-runners clash over security in first TV debate

South Korea’s two leading presidential candidates clashed over plans to reinforce national missile defense against North Korea, while showing discrepancy in their approach to US and China in a two-hour TV debate aired Thursday. The four presidential candidates’ first public discussion on foreign and security policy conspicuously centered on ways to enhance missile defense, which has been challenged by North Korea’s rapidly advancing missile and nuclear capabilities. North K

Feb. 4, 2022

South Korean extortion suspect repatriated from US

A South Korean anti-prostitution activist, who fled to the United States in 2019 after being sought on charges of extortion, has been repatriated home, prosecutors said Friday. The Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO) said the 40-year-old fugitive, whose name was withheld, was captured in the US in December and was returned to South Korea on Thursday in the form of forced deportation. He was put on a wanted list for extorting money from prostitution establishments in collusion with gangsters while

Feb. 4, 2022

Secretary Blinken condemns N. Korean missile tests in talks with S. Korean FM

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned North Korea's recent missile launches Thursday, while reaffirming the US-South Korea alliance as the linchpin of peace, in bilateral talks with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong. Blinken also reaffirmed US commitment to engage with North Korea in dialogue. "Secretary Blinken reaffirmed the alliance as the linchpin of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond and discussed ways to further deepen coo

Feb. 4, 2022

FM Chung protests Japan’s Sado mine heritage push in his first call with Hayashi

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on Thursday expressed deep disappointment and protested against Japan’s recent decision to seek a UNESCO World Heritage List designation for the gold mine on the island of Sado, which is associated with the wartime abuse of Korean laborers, in his first phone call with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi.  Their conversation came just days after the Japanese government on Tuesday decided to go ahead with the listing of the Sado min

Feb. 3, 2022

US focused on joint defense readiness with S. Korea: Pentagon

WASHINGTON -- The United States continues to remain focused on its joint defense capabilities with South Korea and will make any related decisions through close consultation with Seoul, a Pentagon spokesperson said Wednesday. John Kirby made the remarks when asked if the US and South Korea were considering postponing joint military exercises despite a recent series of missile launches by North Korea. "As I've said many times, we take our readiness on the peninsula very, very seriously,&qu

Feb. 3, 2022

US nuke envoy condemns recent NK missile launch, but stresses diplomacy

WASHINGTON -- The US special representative for North Korea has condemned Pyongyang's recent missile launch but stressed readiness for "serious and sustained diplomacy" with the recalcitrant regime, the State Department said Tuesday. Ambassador Sung Kim made the remarks during phone talks with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts -- Funakoshi Takehiro and Noh Kyu-duk-- respectively, on Saturday and Sunday (Washington time) following the North's test-firing of what it calls the H

Feb. 2, 2022

Washington’s pick of new envoy to Seoul: what’s the implication?

After more than a year wait, the Joe Biden administration has decided on a new US ambassador to South Korea, according to sources here. It will nominate Philip Goldberg, a career diplomat currently serving as US Ambassador to Colombia, to lead the US mission in Seoul at a critical moment on the Korean Peninsula. Observers are trying to determine what Washington’s selection would mean for the future of the 70-year alliance and its approaches to nuclear-armed North Korea, as well as how it

Jan. 31, 2022

[Hwang’s China and the World] Chinese thoughts on Belt and Road Initiative, its shine and shade

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), formerly known as One Belt One Road, was first initiated as Chinese President Xi Jinping presented “One Belt” in Kazakhstan in September 2013 and “One Road” in Indonesia the following October. One Belt represents the Silk Road Economic Belt that connects all the way from Central Asia to Europe through an overland route, while One Road stands for the Maritime Silk Road that stretches its branches to Southeast Asia and beyond.  It h

Jan. 30, 2022

S. Korea voices 'strong regret' over Japan's Sado mine heritage push

South Korea on Friday expressed "strong regret" over Japan's push to recommend a former gold mine associated with wartime forced labor as a candidate for a UNESCO World Heritage site and called for its retraction. Seoul's Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon called in Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Aiboshi Koichi to lodge a protest after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to nominate the controversial mine on Sado Island for the 2023 UNESCO heritage list

Jan. 28, 2022

Japan's Sado mine World Heritage push causes new setback in Seoul-Tokyo ties

  The already fraught ties between South Korea and Japan were dealt yet another setback Friday when Tokyo plowed ahead with the recommendation of a former mine linked to wartime forced labor as a UNESCO World Heritage candidate despite Seoul's objections.  After weeks of deliberation, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the plan to nominate the gold and silver mine on Sado Island for the 2023 heritage designation, considering its historical value.  The move furthe

Jan. 28, 2022

Japan in final consultations to recommend Sado mine as UNESCO heritage site: report

Japan is in "final consultations" internally to press ahead with a plan to recommend a local gold and silver mine as a candidate for UNESCO world heritage despite South Korea's strong opposition, according to a news report Friday. The Japanese government is nearing a decision to recommend the Sado mine in Niigata Prefecture, where thousands of Koreans were forced into hard labor during the 1910-45 colonization of the peninsula, as a candidate for the 2023 world heritage site, just day

Jan. 28, 2022

S. Korea calls for swift revision of Trump-era steel tariffs

South Korea's top trade official called on the United States on Friday to swiftly begin talks to revise the Section 232 tariff rules on Seoul's steel exports, the trade ministry said Friday. In 2018, the US waived the tariffs on South Korean steel products, but it was in return for a yearly import quota of 2.63 million tons of steel, or 70 percent of Seoul's average steel products export volume over the past three years. South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo made the request to US Trade Repr

Jan. 28, 2022

Market access may make US-proposed IPEF more attractive: S. Korean trade minister

Increased market access may make a US-envisioned new economic framework in the Indo-Pacific region more attractive, South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said Thursday. Yeo said the US-proposed Indo-Pacific economic framework (IPEF) may provide common goods by setting rules and standards, especially for newly emerging industries, such as digitalization, but insisted many countries would consider increased market access as a return for taking part in such an initiative. "I think market a

Jan. 28, 2022

US equally focused on N. Korea as all other threats: Pentagon spokesman

The United States is equally focused on dealing with the threat posed by North Korea just as it is with all other major security issues, US Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby said Thursday. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday (Seoul time), marking its sixth missile launch since the start of this month. "Just because right now one issue obviously is certainly capturing the attention of the world community doesn't mean that we are not equally pursu

Jan. 28, 2022

S. Korea holds talks on joining DEPA pact

South Korea held talks Thursday with the three member states of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to join the world's first plurilateral digital pact. The DEPA, which came into effect in January last year, is an agreement signed by Singapore, New Zealand and Chile to establish key rules on digital trade issues, such as digital identities, cross-border data flows and artificial intelligence. South Korea said the pact could serve as an extensive platform for establishing a global

Jan. 27, 2022

Many 'promising things' can happen if N. Korea comes to dialogue table: Lambert

Many promising things can happen for North Korea if Pyongyang returns to the dialogue table with the US, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Japan and Korea Mark Lambert said Wednesday. The US diplomat also stressed that the US has "no reservations" regarding dialogue with North Korea. "We have made it very clear to Pyongyang. We will go anywhere. We will talk about anything. There are no reservations we have," he said in a webinar hosted by the Center for Strategic and

Jan. 27, 2022

S. Korea, UAE hold high-level talks on forming joint bidding team for nuclear energy projects

South Korea and the United Arab Emirates held a high-level meeting on Wednesday and agreed to establish a joint bidding team for nuclear energy projects in third-party countries, the foreign ministry said. The agreement was reached in the fourth session of their high-level consultation on nuclear energy, led by Seoul's Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon and Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, the UAE minister of energy and industry, held through video links, according to the ministry. Both

Jan. 26, 2022

Seoul advises Korean nationals in 15 Ukraine regions to leave

South Korean government advised its nationals residing in 15 regions in Ukraine to leave amid heightened fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. 　 The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday additionally placed 12 provinces located in the eastern and northern regions of Ukraine, including capital Kyiv, Rivne, Sumy and Odessa, under the elevated travel alert, advising South Korean nationals to swiftly exit the region. 　 Fifteen out of Ukraine’s 25 provinces are now under a Level 3 travel ad

Jan. 26, 2022

US remains prepared to engage in dialogue with N. Korea: State Dept.

WASHINGTON -- The United States remains committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through diplomacy and dialogue, state department press secretary Ned Price said Tuesday. The spokesperson also reiterated that the US harbors no hostile intent toward North Korea. "We have no hostile intent. We harbor no hostile intent towards the DPRK. We are open to dialogue. We're open to diplomacy," Price said in a press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official nam

Jan. 26, 2022