South Korea welcomed the landmark agreement between world powers and Iran to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, expressing hopes for progress in international efforts to denuclearize North Korea.“Our government expects that the conscientious implementation of the measures under this accord will contribute to completely resolving the international community’s concerns over Iran’s nuclear program and to regional peace and stability and the strengthening of the non-nuclear proliferation r

July 14, 2015

South Korea launched a special express railway linking Asia and Europe on Tuesday, seeking to crank up political, economic and cultural ties with the region and rally the global community behind its commitment to a peaceful reunification with North Korea. More than 200 South Koreans gathered at Seoul Station before setting out on a 20-day, 14,400-kilometer journey on the “Eurasia Express,” displaying their resolve and sharing their mission statement. They then flew to Vladivostok, the train’s st

July 14, 2015

More than 250 South Koreans are poised to embark Tuesday on a 20-day journey across Asia and into Europe on a pair of special express trains as part of Seoul’s initiative for greater business and sociocultural cooperation between the two continents. Under the slogan “One Dream, One Eurasia,” high-profile figures from the political, business, academic and cultural circles as well as dozens of special guests and ordinary citizens will gather in Seoul before flying to Vladivostok and Beijing for tw

July 13, 2015

The Seoul National University Hospital, with the support of the Georgian Embassy in Seoul, completed the first successful living donor liver transplant in Tbilisi in March, opening doors for more medical cooperation between Georgia and Korea. SNUH surgeon Dr. Lee Kwang-woong performed the operation, together with a colleague, an anesthesiologist and a nurse who were all from Georgia. In the operation, 18-year-old Mariam Gobejishvili donated 60 percent of her liver to her 55-year-old father Gocha

July 13, 2015

Pakistan is poised to grow as part of the global economy and a safer investment haven, the country’s Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Kahn told journalists last week. Khan visited Seoul to expand economic cooperation and elicit Korean investment in Pakistan, building on former Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won’s visit to Islamabad in April last year. He participated in the first annual meeting of the Pakistan-Korea Joint Trade Commission Wednesday, as both countries seek to launc

July 13, 2015

Switzerland and Korea can join hands to reduce the world’s carbon footprint and push sustainable use of energy, the Swiss environment minister highlighted last week. Switzerland’s minister of the environment, transport, energy and communications (DETEC), Doris Leuthard, came to Korea on a four-day visit to share her country’s sustainable policies and innovations, supported by the Institute for Global Economics, the Swiss Embassy in Seoul and the Swiss-Korean Business Council. The minister was ac

July 12, 2015

South Korea and the U.S. have launched a joint panel to investigate the shipment of a possibly live anthrax sample to an American military base here, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday, more than a month after the incident was revealed and after weeks of protests by activists here.In late May, 22 U.S. servicemen were identified as having possibly come into contact with the lethal bacteria “inadvertently” sent to Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province by a military laboratory in Utah. Though the U.

July 12, 2015

Seoul and Washington will likely come to a “crucial agreement” on North Korea during President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the U.S. capital later this year to help shift the regime’s strategic calculations and expedite progress in their nuclear talks, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Thursday. South Korea’s top diplomat also called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to seize a “golden opportunity” to tackle persistent international concerns over his revisionist views through a statement to be

July 9, 2015

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday installed a popup window on its website to underscore that Japan’s wartime use of forced Korean labor was reflected in the final UNESCO document that gave World Heritage status to 23 sites of Japan’s Meiji-era industrial revolution.The move came after Tokyo was seen watering down its official statement at a session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany, last Sunday that a large number of Koreans were “brought against their will and forced to w

July 7, 2015

Less than a day after South Korea and Japan clinched a breakthrough on Tokyo’s UNESCO World Heritage bid, tension is brewing again as Japan attempts to water down its statement on the use of forced Korean labor during the colonial period. Twenty-three Japanese wartime industrial facilities were listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites Sunday, following a compromise that Tokyo stipulates that it forced Koreans to work at some of them and plans to honor them in the final document. In a footnote enshr

July 6, 2015

Japan’s major wartime industrial facilities were listed as World Heritage sites on Sunday, with Tokyo conceding forced labor and other cruelties against Koreans for the first time on the world stage and vowing measures to commemorate the victims. The decision made at a World Heritage Committee conference in Bonn, Germany, marked a breakthrough between South Korea and Japan following grueling two-month negotiations over how to address the appalling chapter of the archipelago country’s history tha

July 6, 2015

The Chinese Embassy donated 10,000 books to Seoul National University on Tuesday, fulfilling a pledge made by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited Korea last July. The donation, which also includes some 750 DVDs, covers traditional Chinese culture, philosophy, history, law, literature, ethics and medicine, as well as books on imperial Japan’s war crimes, ancient Korean history and the ethnic Chinese in Korea. Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong. (Joel Lee/The Korea Herald)In a ceremony at SNU

July 5, 2015

Violinist Won Hyung-joon (left) and artist Park Gian. (Uky Baek/Ukynepeople)Two Korean artists will stage a performance piece this week in an effort to lift the role of art in society. “Endless Lingering” by violinist Won Hyung-joon and artist Park Gian will be held at the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art from Thursday to Saturday. The performance will feature Won playing J.S. Bach’s “Chaconne,” accompanied by Park’s dance and a movie showing the flowing movement of paint on her painting. The per

July 5, 2015

Ahead of the 70th anniversary of Korea’s division, a policy expert has published a book that provides suggestions for Korea’s unification strategy based on Northern Ireland’s peace process. The Irish Embassy on Tuesday hosted Dr. Kim Jung-ro, the director of the Settlement Support Center for North Korean Refugees, for his new book “The Irish Peace Process.” (From left) Author Kim Jung-ro, Irish Ambassador Alngeal O'Donoghue and former Korean Ambassador to the U.K. Ra Jong-il pose at a reception

July 5, 2015