Trump offers to help ease tension in Japan-South Korea dispute

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) -- US President Donald Trump on Friday offered to help ease tensions in the political and economic dispute between Japan and South Korea, which threatens global supplies of memory chips and smartphones.Lingering tension, particularly over the issue of compensation for South Koreans forced to work for Japanese occupiers during World War Two, took a turn for the worse this month when Japan restricted exports of high-tech materials to South Korea.The United States has bee

July 21, 2019

US-S.Korean military exercise to proceed - top S.Korean official

A top South Koreanofficial on Saturday said a US-South Korean military exercisewould go ahead as planned next month, denying Pyongyang'scharges that holding it would breach an agreement made between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un."The nature of the exercise is not offensive ... and is forstrengthening the alliance," Choi Jong-kun, the secretary forpeace planning to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, told the Aspen Institute's annual strategic forum.Later

July 21, 2019

S. Korea, US mulling renaming next month's joint military exercise

South Korea and the United States have been considering staging a joint military exercise next month as scheduled but under a different name, sources said Sunday, amid warnings from North Korea that the drill could affect its nuclear talks with Washington.The allies were known to have planned to conduct the summertime exercise, named 19-2 Dong Maeng, to verify Seoul's capabilities for its envisioned retaking of wartime operational control of its troops from Washington. But they are reviewin

July 21, 2019

Japan vows action if S. Korea hurts companies in trade row

Japan's foreign minister said Tokyo will take "necessary measures" against South Korea if interests of Japanese companies are harmed in an escalating dispute over World War II forced labor.  The neighboring countries and US allies are quarreling over South Korean court decisions ordering Japanese companies to compensate victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Friday after summoning South Korean Ambassa

July 20, 2019

Trump says ready to help resolve Korea-Japan dispute

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said Friday he remained at the ready to help South Korea and Japan solve their lingering dispute over World War II-era forced labor that has blighted their trade ties.After South Korea's high court ordered Japanese firms that used forced labor to compensate victims, Tokyo in early July restricted exports of chemicals vital to Seoul's world-leading chip and smartphone industry in an escalation of their decades-old row.South Korean President Moon Jae-in

July 20, 2019

Fate of S. Korea-Japan military pact in doubt amid escalating export row

A rancorous diplomatic spat between South Korea and Japan is casting doubts over the fate of a military intelligence-sharing pact seen as a rare symbol of their trust and a key platform for trilateral security cooperation involving the United States.The tussle that started from a simmering row over Japan's wartime forced labor has been escalating into the economic domain with Tokyo's July 4 measure to tighten restrictions on exports to South Korea of key industrial materials. It is now fear

July 19, 2019

Cheong Wa Dae says Japan violating int'l law, ponders ‘all options’

The office of President Moon Jae-in accused Japan on Friday of breaching international law with unilateral export restrictions against South Korea.Kim Hyun-chong, deputy chief of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, was countering a statement by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono that Seoul is not abiding by a 1965 bilateral treaty in violation of international law. Japan‘s claim is “incorrect,” Kim told reporters. He pointed out that South Korea’s Supreme Cou

July 19, 2019

Foreign Ministry hits back at Japan’s claim on wartime labor dispute, urges to face up to history

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry hit back Friday at Japan’s claim that South Korea was violating international law in the wartime forced labor issue and urged it to face up to history. “The South Korean government cannot agree with the Japanese government’s unilateral and arbitrary claims regarding our court’s ruling and jurisdiction, and its arbitration proposal to resolve the dispute. We also do not have to be bound to (Japan’s) demands,” a ministry offi

July 19, 2019

[Herald Interview] Yuji Hosaka on why Korea, Japan still spar over bygones

It’s summer break at Sejong University in Seoul, but professor Yuji Hosaka is swamped with work. A go-to expert on South Korea-Japan relations, he is bombarded with requests for media interviews and guest lectures as the two neighbors are embroiled in their worst dispute in years. Seeing no easy resolution to the current standoff, which was set off earlier this month by Japan’s decision to impose export restrictions that will seriously impact Korean computer chipmakers, Hosaka w

July 19, 2019

Seoul working on visit by Bolton

Seoul and Washington are working on a possible visit to South Korea by US national security adviser John Bolton, a local news outlet reported Thursday. “South Korean and US authorities are consulting over Bolton’s visit to Korea,” Yonhap News Agency quoted an anonymous official with Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying. According to the report, Bolton’s Seoul visit is being arranged on the occasion of his trip to Japan. Japanese media earlier reported

July 18, 2019

Seoul silent on Tokyo’s arbitration offer

South Korea offered no answer Thursday to Japan’s call to settle the row over Tokyo’s wartime forced labor through third-country arbitration, raising tensions further between the neighbors, with both countries turning down resolution proposals from the other.Seoul intentionally missed Thursday’s deadline by which Tokyo demanded Seoul respond to its request to resolve historical disputes stemming from its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula while hinting at possible ret

July 18, 2019

Japan’s trade curbs will impact global industry: Seoul official

Japan’s recent decision to impose tighter restrictions on exports to South Korea of key materials for the semiconductors and display industries will take a toll on the global tech industry, Seoul’s government official said Wednesday. “It will adversely affect companies ranging from Apple, Amazon and Dell to Sony and billions of consumers all over the world,” he told foreign reporters based in Seoul on the condition of anonymity. The trade measure, which was taken by Tokyo

July 17, 2019

Korea better than Japan in strategic trade controls: US think tank

Korea has exceeded Japan in controlling trade of strategic materials, a report by a US research institute showed, amid a trade spat between the two neighboring countries as Tokyo blamed “weaknesses” in Seoul’s export control system for its latest restrictions in exports to Korea.South Korea ranked No. 17 among 200 countries surveyed in terms of the effectiveness of national strategic trade controls in a study by the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit

July 17, 2019

Cheong Wa Dae: Japan's arbitration process offer unacceptable

A couple of days ahead of the deadline set by Japan for South Korea to respond to its offer of a formal arbitration process over historical disputes, the office of President Moon Jae-in made clear Tuesday that it won't accept the call.Cheong Wa Dae’s stern stance came amid Tokyo‘s threat of additional trade measures against South Korean companies. It heralds a possible deepening of the rift between the neighboring countries.　"There’s no change in the government‘s pos

July 16, 2019

New top US diplomat for East Asia visits Seoul

David Stilwell, the new top US diplomat for East Asia policy, arrived in South Korea on Tuesday for talks with top Seoul officials over the bilateral alliance and ongoing diplomacy for North Korea‘s denuclearization.The three-day visit by the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs came amid rising tensions between Seoul and Tokyo over the latter’s recent export restrictions, which are seen as a retaliatory step following last year‘s top court rulings he

July 16, 2019

[News Focus] Does Korea-Japan dispute put trilateral cooperation with US at risk?

The worsening diplomatic row between South Korea and Japan has raised concerns that it may threaten security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.On July 4, Japan raised the ante with economic retaliatory measures as tensions heightened over the use of forced labor by Japanese companies during the country’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.  Japan’s announcement of restrictions on exports of items used by South Korean chip and smartphone companies ignited an

July 16, 2019

[Newsmaker] Mitsubishi refuses to discuss compensation for wartime forced labor

The liquidation of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Korean assets is likely to be expedited as it has refused to hold talks on compensation for victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor, according to sources Tuesday.A civic group working with the victims said that the Japanese firm had not responded to the victims’ request for discussions to follow up on the South Korean Supreme Court’s order that it compensate them by the Monday deadline. “Having lost the lawsuit, Mitsub

July 16, 2019

Vice minister stresses importance of Seoul-Tokyo relations for regional peace and prosperity

Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho emphasized the importance of bilateral relations between South Korea and Japan on Tuesday to ensure peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia, while expressing support for Tokyo's push for talks with North Korea. Suh made the remark at a forum in Tokyo that was held amid escalating tensions between the two neighbors after Japan's recent move to curb exports of its high-tech parts to South Korea, according to a text of his address provided by the ministry. "Rela

July 16, 2019

Vice unification minister to meet Japanese official amid trade dispute

Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho will meet with a Japanese official during his three-day trip to Tokyo this week, a ministry official said Tuesday, amid escalating tensions between the two countries over Japan's export restrictions. Suh left for Japan earlier in the day to give a keynote speech at a side event of the Korea Global Forum for Peace hosted by the unification ministry."A meeting with a Japanese government official is included (in his schedule)," a ministry official said. &q

July 16, 2019

Moon lambasts Japan over ‘unwise’ trade moves

President Moon Jae-in on Monday urged Japan again to reconsider its trade curbs, saying that linking historical and economic issues was a “very unwise move” and that Japan would ultimately be hit harder than Korea. “Japan’s unprecedented action of linking historical issues to economic issues is a very unwise measure that goes against the history of improving bilateral relations,” Moon said at a weekly meeting with his aides.  He added that the two countries had

July 15, 2019