Korea says it is 'not desirable' to link 'comfort woman' statue issue with Dokdo

South Korea's foreign ministry said on Thursday that it is "not desirable" to link the current diplomatic friction over a girl statue symbolizing Japan's wartime sexual slavery with the issue of Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo which are claimed by Tokyo. "We would like to point out that the two issues are completely different in that the girl statue is a universal human rights issue related to comfort women victimized by Japan's military, while Dokdo is a matter associated with our territori

Jan. 19, 2017

Korea to hold overseas missions' meeting this week

South Korea's foreign ministry said Thursday that it will hold a meeting of diplomats in charge of more than a dozen of its overseas missions this week to discuss the country's multilateral diplomatic strategies and policy direction.Top envoys of 16 overseas missions, including the permanent mission to the United Nations, the permanent delegation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and embassies in the Netherlands and Thailand, will gather in New York on Friday (local t

Jan. 19, 2017

Korea-Japan ties going beyond 'difficult history' also good for US: Victor Cha

Strong South Korea-Japan ties that go beyond their "difficult history" will also be good for the United States, as it needs help from its key Asian allies in resolving challenges lying ahead in the region, a US expert on Northeast Asian affairs said Wednesday.Victor Cha made the remarks in response to a question over what impact it could have on South Korea's alliance with the US if Korea seeks renegotiation of a landmark deal on Japan's wartime sexual slavery.The Georgetown University professor

Jan. 18, 2017

Korea asks Iraq to better protect its firms, people

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se asked Iraq to step up efforts to better protect South Korean companies and nationals residing in the Middle East country, his ministry said Wednesday.During a meeting with Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari held on Tuesday in Seoul, Yun also promised to keep providing humanitarian aid to Bagdad and seeking cooperation in such areas as education and health, the ministry said in a press release.In response, Iraq's top diplomat agreed to pay close attention to

Jan. 18, 2017

S. Korea OKs EugeneBell's plan to send TB medication to NK

South Korea's unification ministry has approved an application by the EugeneBell Foundation Korea to send medication for tuberculosis to North Korea, a government official said Wednesday.The government on Tuesday gave the green light to the foundation's request to deliver medical aid to North Korea, but it rejected the agency's move to send materials needed to build hospital wards in the new year, according to a ministry official.The ministry previously said that it was considering the group's p

Jan. 18, 2017

House lawmaker introduces bill calling for relisting N. Korea as terror sponsor

A US House lawmaker has introduced a bill calling for relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) brought in the legislation (H.R.479) that requires "a report on the designation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism." The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, according to congressional records.The lawmaker introduced a similar bill in the previous House

Jan. 18, 2017

Korea mulling sanctions against Syria over chemical weapons use

South Korea is considering sanctions against Syria for the regime's illegal use of chemical weapons, the foreign ministry said Tuesday."The South Korean government expresses its deep concerns over Syria's use of chemical weapons," spokesman Cho June-hyuck said in a regular briefing, referring to recent findings by the Joint Investigative Mechanism by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations.The reports by the joint team found the Syrian regime used industri

Jan. 17, 2017

Korea urges Japan to stop claiming Dokdo

South Korea called on Japan Tuesday to stop its repeated and unjustifiable territorial claims of the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo.In a related move, the foreign ministry said that it called in a Japanese Embassy official to deliver its concerns and strong protest.The move comes after Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters in Tokyo that the islets are Japan's own territory, referring to Dokdo by its Japanese name Takeshima. He made the remark in response to a question abo

Jan. 17, 2017

Korean acting president calls for unwavering US ties ahead of Trump inauguration

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday called for enhanced ties with the United States ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who expressed skepticism of Washington's alliances and trade deals with South Korea and other partners while campaigning. During a Cabinet meeting, Hwang highlighted the role of the Korea-US military alliance in ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, and instructed the government to further develop econom

Jan. 17, 2017

Korean man abducted for ransom last year murdered by Philippine policemen

A South Korean man who was kidnapped for ransom in the Philippines last year was recently found to have been killed by three local police officers and a former policeman, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The law enforcement officers and ex-policeman were behind the abduction of the 50-something businessman, surnamed Ji, on Oct. 18 in Angeles City, a ministry official said, quoting probe results conducted by Filipino authorities and provided to Seoul on Monday.According to the local investigatio

Jan. 17, 2017

Trump reiterates accusations allies free-riding on US security commitments

Incoming US President Donald Trump has reiterated his campaign accusations that many allies are free riding on American security commitments in an indication he could make good on his campaign pledges to pressure allies to pay more."A lot of these countries aren't paying what they're supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States," Trump said of NATO allies in an interview published in the British newspaper Times and Germany's Bild newspaper.There's five countries that

Jan. 17, 2017

Ambassadors opine on the art of public diplomacy

As the realm of diplomacy increasingly engages the public at large, culture is being writ large in the vocabulary and method of foreign affairs experts around the globe.One of the major tasks of diplomats is mastering the art of public diplomacy -- employing the allures of visual art, music, literature and performing arts -- in a world increasingly interconnected culturally, according to Latvian Ambassador to Korea Peteris Vaivars. Diplomats, actors and other recipients of the 2017 Korea Image A

Jan. 16, 2017

[HERALD INTERVIEW] ‘US-China clash could reset inter-Korean ties’

With US President-elect Donald Trump amplifying his pugnacious rhetoric on China, foreign policy pundits have sounded their jitters about the fallout on the Korean Peninsula and North Korean nuclear impasse.While cooperation between the US and China has generally expanded diplomatic room for South Korea and vice versa, the coming clash of the two titans is “not necessarily a bad thing,” according to John Delury, associate professor at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies.

Jan. 16, 2017

Ex-US diplomat calls for US pressure on Japan to put aside statue row with Korea

The United States should exercise "outside pressure" on Japan to get the ally to put aside its complaint over a South Korean statue symbolizing Tokyo's wartime sexual slavery and work hard to mend ties with Seoul, a former State Department official said.Mintaro Oba, a former diplomat handling Korea-Japan relations, made the remark in an article to The Diplomat, strongly criticizing Tokyo for overreacting to the establishment by civic activists of the girl's statue in front of Japan's consulate i

Jan. 16, 2017

Foreign ministers of Korea, Iraq to hold talks in Seoul this week

The foreign ministers of South Korea and Iraq will hold talks this week to discuss bilateral economic cooperation and other issues of mutual concern, Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday.Seoul's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim Al-Jaafari will meet Tuesday to exchange views on a series of bilateral and regional issues, including security on the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se (Yonhap)Al-Jaafari's four-day schedule, which was arra

Jan. 15, 2017

Koreans believe Trump administration will have big impact on NK nuke issue

The majority of South Koreans believe that the incoming US administration under President-elect Donald Trump will have considerable impact on the North Korean nuke issue, a poll showed Sunday.According to the survey carried out by the National Unification Advisory Council, 60.5 percent said there would likely be a considerable impact, significantly more than 33.4 percent who said the influence would be small.   The findings also showed 73 percent were concerned that Pyongyang would engage in mor

Jan. 15, 2017

Seoul to convene meeting of key ambassadors to discuss security issues

South Korea will convene a meeting of key ambassadors this week to discuss security challenges facing the country, the foreign ministry said Sunday.According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seoul's Ambassador to the United States Ahn Ho-young; Kim Jang-soo, its top envoy to China; and mission chiefs to Japan, Russia and the United Nations will be at the meetings with other senior diplomatic policymakers.It said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, as well as senior officials, will be on hand to ho

Jan. 15, 2017

[Newsmaker] Lippert bids tearful farewell

US Ambassador Mark Lippert has been championing public diplomacy since he arrived as Washington’s youngest-ever representative to Seoul in October 2014 at age 41.He reached out to ordinary citizens by traveling across the country, opening his home to the public and attending baseball games, while walking his dog Grigsby around downtown in a Doosan Bears jersey. He gave Korean middle names to his son and daughter, who were both born here, Sejun and Seahee. A knife attack on him in the middle of a

Jan. 13, 2017

Seoul welcomes US secretary nominee's suggestion of continued sanctions on N. Korea

The foreign ministry hailed President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state on Thursday, who called for a continuation of a sanctions-oriented policy towards North Korea.During a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday in Washington, Rex Tillerson said that "adversaries like Iran and North Korea pose grave threats to the world," publicly mentioning threats made by Pyongyang for the first time since his nomination last month.  Tillerson also suggested that the US' increase pressure

Jan. 12, 2017