New Zealand showcases nation as study destination

New Zealand Embassy and Tertiary Education officials and Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce pitched the Asia-Pacific nation as place to study at the 2013 New Zealand Education Fair at COEX in southern Seoul on Sept. 14-15. The fair supported the embassy’s “Study in New Zealand” campaign, and more than 30 New Zealand institutions from various areas of education were represented at the two-day fair. “There’s nothing quite like this sort of face-to-face interaction to give students and the

Sept. 22, 2013

Malaysia invites Korean buyers to trade fair

The Malaysian Embassy’s trade and investment center is inviting Korean companies to register for INTRADE 2013, a trade fair to take place in Kuala Lumpur from Nov. 24-28, to meet prospective business partners from both developed and emerging economic sectors.Korean companies that participate in INTRADE 2013, the seventh International Trade Malaysia, can be matched with prospective Malaysian partners in one-on-one meetings during the trade fair, according to the embassy. INTRADE 2013 will focus o

Sept. 22, 2013

U.S. museum to return Joseon Dynasty seal to S. Korea

A U.S. museum has decided to return a seal used by a queen of Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) after confirming it was stolen by an American soldier during the 1950-53 Korean War, a South Korean lawmaker said Thursday. Rep. An Min-suk of the main opposition Democratic Party said officials at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art expressed their intention to return the artifact to South Korea and issued a statement confirming the decision. "Our persistent efforts to collect evidence and demand (

Sept. 20, 2013

N.K., Chinese nuke envoys discuss six-party talks

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― Chief nuclear envoys from North Korea and China held talks in Beijing and shared “in-depth views” on ways to resume the six-party talks on ending the Norths’ nuclear weapons program, China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. A delegation headed by North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan arrived in Beijing on Monday, nearly three weeks after Kim held talks in Pyongyang with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei. The North Korean delegation included Pyongyang’s chief

Sept. 17, 2013

Seoul urges Tokyo to stick to its peace constitution

South Korea called on Japan Monday to comply with the basic ideology of its peace-promoting constitution as Tokyo is making legal efforts to beef up its military might.Japan is moving to amend its post-war constitution in order to strengthen its military, whose capacity is now confined mainly to self-defense activities. The pacifist constitution, written after the country’s defeat in World War II, prohibits Japan’s rearmament as well as the deployment of its forces abroad.“We are repeatedly dema

Sept. 16, 2013

Tension flares with Japan over Korea’s fisheries import ban

The Japanese government is moving to protest South Korea’s ban on all fisheries products from Fukushima and adjacent regions for fear of radioactive exposure, posing another strain on the bilateral relations already frayed by historical rows. A high-ranking official at Japan’s Fisheries Agency is set to visit South Korea on Monday in an apparent move to pressure Seoul into lifting the import ban, reports said.Kenji Kagawa, director-general of Resources Enhancement Promotion Department, will requ

Sept. 15, 2013

African envoys convene with politicians at National Assembly

Some three dozen ambassadors and heads of foreign diplomatic missions here in South Korea convened for a day-long forum on the nation’s ties with Africa in the Memorial Hall at the National Assembly on Friday. Diplomatic representatives of all 17 African nations with embassy-level ties here participated along with many others from the foreign diplomatic community in the “National Assembly Forum for Africa’s New Era” which sought to promote bilateral ties between the African region and South Kore

Sept. 15, 2013

British Embassy, Seoul City lock horns over property

The Seoul city government and Junggu District Office have complained that the British Embassy is illegally blocking the entrance to an alley adjacent to Deoksugung Palace.The alley occupies a narrow kilometer-long sliver between a wall of the British Embassy and a wall of the northeast corner of the historic palace in the Jeong-dong neighborhood of downtown Seoul.The British Embassy here said that it has been leasing the area since the 1950s, and an embassy spokesperson expressed irritation that

Sept. 15, 2013

S. Korea, U.S. not sending gov't officials to 6-way meeting in China

Effectively spurning one of China's initiatives aimed at reviving multilateral talks with North Korea, South Korea and the United States have decided not to send government officials to a six-nation meeting to be held later this month, diplomatic sources here said Thursday."Given North Korea's attitude and the current mood, we are not in a stage yet for a gathering of government officials from the parties involved in the six-way talks," a source said.China has offered an informal meeting of gove

Sept. 13, 2013

Syria crisis forcing Korea's top presidential aide to delay trip to U.S.

A top South Korean presidential aide handling national security affairs will have to adjust his plan to visit Washington in September, especially as the Barack Obama administration is preoccupied with the Syrian crisis, an informed source said Sunday.Kim Jang-soo, head of the national security office at Cheong Wa Dae, initially planned to travel to the U.S. this month, which would have been his first trip here since taking the post in February."Kim has been pushing for a trip to Washington for m

Sept. 9, 2013

Canadian Embassy brings art to Sookmyung University

The Canadian Embassy here has organized an exhibition showcasing 31 works of art from the embassy‘s collection at Sookmyung Women’s University Museum through Nov. 29.In addition to the embassy’s “Colours of Canada Exhibition: Canadian Modern Art Exhibition,” which showcases contemporary Canadian artworks, it organized two solo exhibitions by Korean-Canadian artists Jinny Yu and Choi Young-man being held in conjunction with the main exhibition.The embassy organized the exhibition as part of its m

Sept. 8, 2013

Post-humanist future explored at French culture center

Downloading consciousness, fashioning physical bodies out of a variety of parts, neuro-implants and personality altering medicine ― in some sense, the future is now, according to Dominique Babin, a writer and post-human theorist invited by the French Embassy to Seoul for a writer-in-residence program. With the translation of her 2004 book “A User’s Guide and Service Manual of the Post-Human (Manuel d‘Usage et d’Entretien du Post-Humain)” into Korean by Kungree Publishing, Babin wrapped up her th

Sept. 8, 2013