S. Korea to lift entry restrictions on EU, Schengen Area countries next month

BERLIN -- South Korea will lift entry restrictions on people from European Union (EU) and Schengen Area countries from next week, diplomatic officials here said Thursday. Visa waiver and visa free entry programs on EU and Schengen Area countries will resume Sept. 1, according to officials of the South Korean Embassy in Germany. Seoul has suspended visa waiver and visa free entry programs of the regions since April 13, 2020, in a move to curb COVID-19 spread. The decision will allow South Korea

Aug. 26, 2021

[Video] Afghan evacuees arrive in Seoul

A military jet carrying 378 at-risk Afghans who worked alongside the Korean government arrived in South Korea on Thursday, as part of Seoul’s mission to evacuate civilians fleeing the Taliban takeover. 　 The evacuees on board the KC-330 tanker transport plane touched down at Incheon International Airport at 4:24 p.m. on Thursday, after leaving the Pakistani capital of Islamabad earlier in the day, according to the Foreign Ministry. 　 Another plane, carrying 13 remaining p

Aug. 26, 2021

'Kabul rescue mission was miracle'

Evacuating almost 400 Afghan allies and their families from Afghanistan was nothing short of miracle, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said Thursday, hinting that there were no more rescue missions possible with just days left before an Aug. 31 deadline for the US withdrawal. “If we had failed to mobilize buses at the last minute, only 26 people could have made it to the airport,” President Moon Jae-in’s senior secretary for public communications, Park Soo-hyun, said in a radi

Aug. 26, 2021

Afghan co-workers, family members on way to S. Korea on aerial tanker

A South Korean military plane departed for home from Islamabad on Thursday, carrying Afghan people evacuated from the war-torn nation after working for the South, as part of operations to bring a total of 391 Afghan co-workers and their family members to the country. The KC-330 tanker transport aircraft took off from an airport in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad at 4:53 a.m. (Seoul time) and is expected to land at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at 3:53 p.m., the foreign minist

Aug. 26, 2021

South Korea set to accept 391 Afghan evacuees Thursday

South Korea is airlifting a total of 391 Afghans out of the war-ravaged country, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, as part of Seoul’s mission to evacuate civilians who worked alongside the Korean government and are therefore vulnerable to retaliation. 　 Afghan allies and their families were expected to arrive at Incheon International Airport aboard military jets Thursday. In the operation, code-named “Operation Miracle,” Korea deployed three military planes to Afghanistan

Aug. 25, 2021

Korea, Colombia to bolster post-COVID partnership

President Moon Jae-in and Colombian President Ivan Duque held summit talks in Seoul on Wednesday and agreed to further bolster bilateral ties that mark the 60th aniversary next year.  Duque and his wife Maria Juliana Ruiz arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for a three-day state visit, becoming the first presidential couple to visit Korea since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. For the Colombian president, it was his first trip outside Latin America amid the pandemic. The state visit was ma

Aug. 25, 2021

S. Korea grants temporary stay permits to Afghans on humanitarian grounds

The justice ministry said Wednesday it will grant special stay permits to Afghans living in South Korea out of humanitarian concerns. The ministry said a total of 434 Afghans, who have been staying in the country on either short- or long-term visa, will benefit from the measure. The measure will remain in place until "the situation in Afghanistan becomes stabilized," the ministry said. Afghanistan remains in a state of chaos following the Taliban's seizure of power earlier this month

Aug. 25, 2021

Air Force chief to visit US for talks with space, air force commanders

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Park In-ho will visit the United States this week for multilateral talks with leaders in charge of space and air operations, his office said Wednesday. Park will depart South Korea later in the day for a 10-day trip to Colorado and Hawaii at the invitation of US chief of space operations, Gen. John Raymond, and US Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, according to the Air Force. During his planned visit to the US Space Command, Park is scheduled to

Aug. 25, 2021

South Korea considering evacuating ‘Afghan allies’: top security adviser

South Korea is considering evacuating some 400 Afghans who helped the reconstruction efforts there and are now targets for Taliban revenge. Still, the government appears cautious about welcoming refugees from Afghanistan. President Moon Jae-in’s top security adviser, Suh Hoon, said Monday that the government was reviewing all possible options to assist Korea’s “Afghan allies” -- referring to translators, medical personnel and engineers who had been hired to wor

Aug. 24, 2021

S. Korea, China launch committee for future-oriented relations

South Korea and China launched a committee on the "future-oriented" development of their relationship Tuesday, ahead of the 30th anniversary next year of the establishment of their diplomatic ties. The launch of the Committee for Future-Oriented Development of Korea-China Relations came as Seoul seeks to maintain close ties with Beijing despite an intensifying Sino-US rivalry injecting complexity into its diplomacy toward the major Asian power. The committee was formed based on last

Aug. 24, 2021

Unification minister hold talks with US nuclear envoy on N. Korea: official

Unification Minister Lee In-young met with the US envoy for North Korea on Tuesday and discussed a coordinated approach to jump-start stalled talks with Pyongyang, an official said. During the breakfast meeting, Lee and US Special Representative Sung Kim shared their overall views on the current situation and discussed how to resume dialogue and cooperation with the North at an early date, the official said. Kim's visit here comes amid chilled inter-Korean relations after the North blasted the

Aug. 24, 2021

S. Korea reviewing special stay permits for country's Afghan community: justice minister

South Korea is reviewing granting special stay permits to Afghans residing in the country amid a humanitarian crisis erupting in Afghanistan following the Taliban's seizure of power, the justice minister said Tuesday. "The government is reviewing granting special residence permits to Afghans residing in the country," Justice Minister Park Beom-kye told reporters on his way to his office in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul. About 400 Afghans are currently staying in South Korea, accordi

Aug. 24, 2021

California's assembly passes resolution to celebrate 'Kimchi Day'

California's legislature has passed a new resolution to celebrate kimchi, a popular Korean fermented side dish, to promote the consumption of healthier food, industry sources said Tuesday. Under the bill led by Californian Assemblyman Steven Choi, which was passed on the previous day, the US state of California plans to celebrate November 22 as "Kimchi Day," according to the World Institute of Kimchi. The latest move came as South Korea celebrated its first Kimchi Day in 2020 in line

Aug. 24, 2021

Dispute grows in S. Korea over Afghan refugees

A heated debate is brewing in South Korea over whether the country has to accept Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover amid a report the United States is considering using its military bases in the country and others to house Afghan evacuees. Since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month, some progressive politicians here have openly expressed support for taking in Afghan refugees. "As the first Asian country that legislated the Refugee Act, the Republic of Korea has a role to play,

Aug. 23, 2021

Vice unification minister to hold high-level consultations with US nuclear envoy

Vice Unification Minister Choi Young-jun will meet with the visiting US nuclear envoy later Monday to discuss a coordinated approach to North Korea, the ministry said. Unification Minister Lee In-young will also hold a breakfast meeting with the US envoy, Amb. Sung Kim, Tuesday to discuss ways for bilateral cooperation on denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations, according to the ministry. Kim's visit here comes amid chilled inter-Korean relations after the North has rejected call

Aug. 23, 2021

Top nuclear envoys of S. Korea, US discuss humanitarian aid to N. Korea

South Korea and the United States on Monday discussed humanitarian aid to North Korea, the US nuclear envoy said after talks with his counterpart in Seoul amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's angry protest against military exercises between the South and the US Amb. Sung Kim also said the US does not have a hostile intent to the North, stressing that the ongoing South Korea-US military exercise is "purely defensive" in nature and renewing his offer to "meet with my North Kore

Aug. 23, 2021

US, Russian nuclear envoys in Seoul to discuss North Korea

The top nuclear envoys from Russia and the US are in Seoul to hold talks with their South Korean counterpart on the stalled nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang amid fresh tension over ongoing US-South Korea military exercises. 　 Sung Kim, the US special representative for North Korea, arrived here Saturday for a four-day visit, days after Pyongyang warned of a “security crisis” over the joint military drills that are due to end Thursday. 　 “I’m looking forward to very clo

Aug. 22, 2021

Pope Francis thanks Korean Catholics for vaccine share drive, prays for Korean peace

Pope Francis on Saturday thanked the South Korean Catholic community for sharing donations to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries and prayed for the continued efforts toward the reconciliation of the Korean Peninsula. In a special papal message delivered by South Korean archbishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Pope Francis praised the generosity of Korean Catholics' vaccine-related donations recently delivered to the Vatican, saying, "This is a strong invitation for a greater commitment t

Aug. 22, 2021

S. Korea in vaccine swap talks with Romania: foreign ministry

South Korea is in vaccine swap talks with Romania, the foreign ministry said, denying a news report that the European country plans to provide the South with coronavirus vaccines for free. Romanian national news agency Agerpres reported earlier that the country decided to give South Korea 450,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine on humanitarian grounds. Seoul's foreign ministry said the two countries are in talks about vaccines but denied that vaccines will be provided for free. "Reports about

Aug. 22, 2021

Biden reaffirms commitment to S. Korea’s defense amid Afghan withdrawal

US President Joe Biden said Thursday in the US that his country is committed to the mutual defense treaty with South Korea, noting the situation in South Korea is different from Afghanistan, where the Taliban swiftly took over the government after the withdrawal of US troops. The US, whose military still has wartime operational control of South Korea’s armed forces, has been pressed over its commitment to collective security as chaos grips Afghanistan. “We are in a situation where

Aug. 20, 2021