[Reporter's Column] Timing matters

For foreign affairs and unification correspondents in Seoul, the defection of North Koreans has long been one of the trickiest subjects to write on. Apart from the murkiness associated with the escapees’ often months-long, arduous journey away from their oppressive homeland, reporters are not allowed to meet with or speak to those fresh off the boat -- at least during the joint questioning that opens upon their arrival and an ensuing three-month mandatory education period at the Hanawon resettle

April 12, 2016

Korean-French minister to visit Seoul to spur digitization project

For Jean-Vincent Place, a French minister in charge of state reform, Korea used to be a ghastly reminder of betrayal and abandonment rather than the land of his birth. But now, the Asian country is one that he wants to associate with to spur his ministry's digitalization scheme.During a recent interview with Korean reporters in Paris, Place said that he has now "reconciled with" his fatherland, which he struggled to push aside under the threshold of his consciousness after being adopted by a Fre

April 10, 2016

Injured Korean ex-sex slave to be transported from China

A former Korean sex slave in China who has suffered serious injuries due to an accident will be transported to her home country on Sunday so she can be treated at a local hospital.Ha Sang-sook, 88, is the last-surviving victim in China of Japan's World War II sexual slavery of Asian women who keeps her South Korean nationality.She broke her rib and pelvis after falling down a staircase on Feb. 15 while quarreling with a neighbor. She recently regained consciousness after receiving treatment in a

April 10, 2016

Korea urges Japan to stop claims to Dokdo

South Korea on Thursday urged Japan to stop making claims to Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as Tokyo is poised to issue a 2016 diplomatic white paper that reportedly includes a sovereignty claim to the islets."Dokdo is Korea's inherent territory historically, geographically and by international law," Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said during a regular press briefing, pointing out that Seoul is "closely watching the situation.""Japan must immediately stop any kind of prov

April 7, 2016

Top Heilongjiang official to visit Seoul

A top Chinese official from the resource-rich Heilongjiang Province in the country's northeast will visit South Korea this week for a three-day stay focusing on bolstering bilateral trade and exchanges, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.Wang Xiankui, the Communist Party Secretary of the province, will arrive here on Sunday on the invitation of the ministry. He will pay a courtesy call on South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and meet with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, the ministry said

April 7, 2016

Korea expresses condolences over passing of former German minister

South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam on Wednesday expressed his "deepest condolences" over the death of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany's former foreign minister and key architect of the country's 1990 reunification.During his visit to the German Embassy in central Seoul, Lim wrote in the visitors' book, "His contributions to the unification of Germany will be remembered for long by the world, in particular by Korea."Genscher died of a heart failure at his home in Wachtberg near Bonn

April 6, 2016

Gov't opts not to disclose radiation test result of Japanese fishery goods

The government has rejected calls to disclose the results of radiation level checks conducted on fishery goods caught near Japan, a civic group said Wednesday.The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Tuesday dismissed the information disclosure request filed by the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, the group said."As the information is related to a case pending at the World Trade Organization, (the disclosure) could lead to a leakage of our strategy to Japan," the ministry was quoted by the group

April 6, 2016

Korean ambassador to Japan offers to resign

South Korea's top envoy to Japan said Wednesday he has offered to resign upon completing his duty of mending frayed bilateral ties.Ambassador Yoo Heung-soo told Yonhap News Agency by phone that he wanted to step down this year after the two countries agreed in December to settle their decadeslong dispute over Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women.The ambassador said he postponed his resignation offer to handle the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear test in January but recently tende

April 6, 2016

Park pays tribute to Mexican heroes ahead of talks with Pena Nieto

South Korean President Park Geun-hye paid tribute to six Mexican cadets at a monument as she began the third day of her visit to Mexico.Park laid a wreath at the Heroic Cadets Memorial in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, a monument that honors the six cadets who fought to the death in 1847 during the Mexican-American War.Park also attended a formal welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace before holding talks with her Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto.The summit comes as South Korea i

April 5, 2016

Japan's annual report to note improvement in Seoul-Tokyo relations

South Korea and Japan are each other's most important neighbors, sharing strategic interests, a draft of Tokyo's annual foreign policy report said Monday.Japan's ties with South Korea have greatly advanced since last year's bilateral deal to settle the issue of Korean women forced to work at wartime Japanese military brothels, said the draft Diplomatic Bluebook for 2016 obtained by Kyodo News Service.According to the draft of the Japanese foreign ministry, South Korea is one of the most importan

April 4, 2016

Backlash holding up S. Korea, Japan wartime sexual slavery deal

Some 100 days after South Korea and Japan agreed to settle the thorny issue of the latter's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, an unrelenting backlash from the victims and their supporters remains a stumbling block to the enforcement of the agreement, analysts here said Monday.From staging regular protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to filing a lawsuit to invalidate the Dec. 28 agreement, victims and civic groups have voiced their vociferous opposition to the deal, that S

April 4, 2016

Turkey to host world humanitarian summit

The following was contributed by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ahead of the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit on May 23 and 24. – Ed.Despite worldwide shock and indignation, it looks as if little Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi’s tragic death last summer has changed little. We are saddened by our collective negation.The power of image and social media, so effective in entertainment, has betrayed those less fortunate. Since Aylan’s death six months ago, countless more innocent men, wome

April 4, 2016

Soy milk plant to nourish Afghan lives

Nutrition and Education International, a nongovernmental organization, hosted a ceremony marking the shipment of equipment for a sterilized soy milk plant in Afghanistan. Twenty-five containers were shipped from Busan to Karachi in southern Pakistan, to be transported to Afghanistan, where the plant is scheduled to be constructed and operational by September. The venue at Daesung Food Tech Corporation headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on March 25 was attended by representatives from Worl

April 4, 2016