U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump strongly criticized the free trade agreement with Korea on Tuesday, accusing it of enlarging U.S. trade deficits and costing a number of American jobs.Trump made the argument in an economic policy speech in Pennsylvania, expressing deeply negative views of free trade and accusing his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of supporting what he called "one terrible trade deal after another.""It was also Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, who shov

June 29, 2016

The German Embassy last week granted diplomas to bookworms at high schools across Seoul who successfully completed German language courses offered by Germany’s school authorities and Foreign Office. At the ceremony on Tuesday, 72 students received certificates for completing the DSD 1 and DSD 2 programs, shortened names for the German Language Certificate of the Education Ministers Conference.By earning these credentials, they are recognized as having the necessary competence to study at German

June 26, 2016

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Glinski visited Korea last week to boost collaboration between the two countries, which aim to globalize their cultures as engines of growth. As part of his five-day visit, he participated in the 7th Asia-Europe Culture Ministers’ Meeting in Gwangju, representing the Polish delegation that joined with the highest number of officials. He also met his counterpart, Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jon

June 26, 2016

New Zealand Minister for Maori Development Te Ururoa Flavell came to Korea last week to raise the profile of Maori businesses and promote their time-honored traditions. On his first visit, Flavell led a trade delegation of nine Maori firms covering food and beverage, seafood, horticulture, agriculture, forestry and tourism. At the breakfast forum hosted by the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, known as “The Kiwi Chamber” on Tuesday, he addressed more than 50 local business community leaders on th

June 26, 2016

In January 2015, an 18-year-old who went missing in Turkey shook South Korean society after being found to have illegally crossed the border to Syria to join the Islamic State extremist group. The boy, identified by his surname Kim, had deliberately planned his trip and vanished with the help of a Turkish man he met online, Seoul authorities said. The police retrieved more than 50 images from his computer of IS jihadists, IS flags and Muslim women, on top of a flurry of related Web search eviden

June 26, 2016

South Korea's prime minister is set to leave for China on Sunday to discuss North Korean issues with the Chinese leadership and touch on other bilateral matters, his office said.Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will fly to Tianjin to participate in the Summer Davos Forum 2016, where he plans to introduce South Korea's flagship creative economy policy, which aims to generate new business opportunities through merging different industries and fostering startups.During his two-day stay in the industria

June 26, 2016

In the wake of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Friday that he will examine its impact on free trade and other existing pacts and take steps to minimize any fallout. “Though some experts see that its impact (on Korea) will be limited given our relatively low trade and finance ties with the U.K. such as compared with the U.S., Brexit will significantly affect the global economy and we’re not free from that,” Yun said at a meeting of the parliamentary

June 24, 2016

South Korean authorities said Tuesday they have decided not to punish the local fishermen who sailed beyond their designated fishing area to seize two Chinese boats that were illegally catching fish near the inter-Korean border earlier this month.A group of South Korean crewmen from 19 fishing boats seized the Chinese boats just south of the Northern Limit Line and dragged the boats and crew to Yeonpyeong Island on June 5.Though the seizure of the boats occurred without incident and the Chinese

June 21, 2016

A delegation of young Chinese public officials is visiting South Korea at the invitation of the Korea Foundation to seek exchanges with South Korean municipal governments, the foundation said Tuesday.The 177-member delegation, led by Wang Yunzhe, vice chief of the China-South Korea Friendship Association, arrived the previous day on an eight-day trip that will take them to the South Korean cities of Gwangmyeong and Daejeon.The arrival of the group, comprising young public officials in Beijing an

June 21, 2016

When Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder set out to work on what would become the international classic “Sophie’s World” in the early 1990s, he had no other option but to write it quickly. As a well-versed but cash-strapped teacher, time was not on his side. In a matter of weeks, Gaarder authored the philosophical tome, making thrifty use of a government scholarship for writers. “Sophie’s World” -- a surreal fantasy about a teenage girl in Norway who is tutored on philosophical thinking and the his

June 20, 2016

Sri Lanka -- an island nation in South Asia -- has emerged from decades of national conflict to reveal its mystic beauties.Known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” the lush tropical isle is famous for its golden beaches with palm trees, Buddhist temples of glittering relics as well as exotic wildlife and sundry vegetation. Its fledgling tourism industry has registered a 230 percent growth over the last five years, and more than 1.8 million travelers visited last year, including 14,000 Koreans.

June 20, 2016

Azerbaijan and Korea on June 14 held the first round of a joint commission on economic cooperation aimed at bolstering partnerships in infrastructure, industrial plants and trade and investment. The meeting in Seoul was led by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Azeri Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, and produced a protocol agreement on economic cooperation covering technology transfer, renewable energy, information communications technology and other areas. S

June 19, 2016

For those that long for the ancient Silk Road splendors from Central Asia, Uzbekistan serves snippets of those former glories, arranged with modern conveniences. The doubly landlocked country in the heart of Eurasia offers a peculiar mishmash of cultural relics: luminous minarets, voluptuous domes and tortuous mosaics, often next to classical Russian architectures and ideological socialist sculptures. Coming out of seven decades of soviet rule through independence in 1991, Uzbekistan has steadil

June 19, 2016

A record shop run by a South Korean in Istanbul was attacked by some Turkish citizens who harbored resentment against it for serving alcohol during the Ramadan fast period, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday. The incident took place at around 9 p.m. on Friday, Istanbul time, as fans of British rock band Radiohead gathered at the Velvet Indieground store to celebrate the band’s new album. “During the event, an unidentified number of Turkish people spotted patrons drinking alcohol inside, broke

June 19, 2016

South Korea’s clampdown on Chinese boats illegally fishing in neutral waters is seen as a move to protect local fishermen and quell increasingly sour public sentiment, but the diplomatic predicament faced by Seoul remains unchanged, if not more intense.Besides its impact on security and maritime affairs, diplomats also perceive the inevitable impact on diplomacy of the ongoing, unprecedented operation involving military and police officers and U.N. Command monitors. The vessels’ rampant poaching

June 19, 2016

South Korea will open an embassy in Madagascar early next month, government sources said Sunday, amid its stepped-up efforts to strengthen diplomacy with the resource-rich continent.The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1962, but Seoul has not opened any mission in Antananarivo, the capital of the southeastern African state. After a government with close ties to North Korea took power in the African state in the 1970s, the bilateral relations remained chilled for nearly two decades. P

June 19, 2016