Int'l commission on constitutional law seeks details on South

An international commission has asked South Korea's Constitutional Court to provide a translation of its recent ruling to disband a political party accused of exercising pro-North Korean principles, officials said Sunday.The Venice Commission, made up of independent specialists, advises countries on constitutional matters. According to the officials, the commission has asked to see the full ruling statement as soon as possible. South Korea is a member of the 47-state organization.South Korea's C

Dec. 21, 2014

U.N. chief thanks S. Korea for joining fight against Ebola

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked South Korean aid officials for joining the global fight against the Ebola virus, saying the contribution is "very meaningful," Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday.On Saturday, Ban met with a team of three officials from South Korea's foreign and health ministries at a hotel in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone.The officials arrived in the West African country last week to help a 10-member medical team that South Korea dispatched to the Ebola-h

Dec. 21, 2014

Seoul urges N.K. to follow Cuba’s path

South Korea called on North Korea Friday to follow Cuba’s footsteps in improving ties with the U.S. and other nations.The U.S. and Cuba announced their decision earlier this week to end five decades of Cold War hostility and revive diplomatic ties.It has effectively made North Korea the only diplomatically isolated nation on the planet. “With this latest decision, (we) expect acceleration of Cuba’s fence-mending with the international community and hope that North Korea would actively join the t

Dec. 19, 2014

N.K. replaces deputy chief of mission to U.N. after human rights resolution

NEW YORK (Yonhap) ― North Korea has recently replaced the deputy chief of its mission to the United Nations in New York, diplomatic sources said Wednesday, a personnel change that followed the recent U.N. passage of a unusually strong human rights resolution against the communist country.“Around two weeks ago, North Korean deputy ambassador to the U.N., Ri Tong-il, was replaced and he returned to the North,” one of the sources, well-versed in U.N. matters, told Yonhap News Agency. “As far as I k

Dec. 18, 2014

Yoon embarks on seven-day trip to Middle East

South Korea’s foreign minister left for Jordan on Thursday in a seven-day visit to the Middle East to discuss ways of cooperating and security issues in the region, officials said.The trip will also take Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se to Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia, foreign ministry officials said.The move is part of Seoul’s efforts to expand its scope of diplomatic activities to the Middle East where tension between Israel and Palestine has recently intensified and the extremist Islamic S

Dec. 18, 2014

S. Korea asks China to clamp down on illegal fishing

South Korea called on China on Thursday to take "strong and effective" measures to clamp down on Chinese fishermen's suspected illegal fishing in the waters off South Korea's west coast, Seoul's foreign ministry said.  South Korea made the request during a meeting with China in Shanghai. The two also exchanged views on how to cooperate better in the fishery field, the foreign ministry said.  One of the major topics of the talks was Seoul's consistent concerns about Chinese fishermen's illegal fi

Dec. 18, 2014

Seoul hails US-Cuba agreement to restore diplomatic ties

South Korea expressed hopes Thursday that an agreement between the United States and Cuba to restore their diplomatic ties could help create an atmosphere that leads to an improvement in Seoul-Havana relations.   In a surprise move, the U.S. and Cuba announced the agreement Wednesday to restore their diplomatic relations that were severed in 1961. The two countries have harbored ideological animosity toward one another since Fidel Castro seized power through the 1959 revolution and chose to walk

Dec. 18, 2014

Seoul FM embarks on seven-day trip to Middle East

South Korea's foreign minister left for Jordan on Thursday in a seven-day visit to the Middle East to discuss ways of cooperating and security issues in the region, officials said.   The trip will also take Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se to Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia, foreign ministry officials said.   The move is part of Seoul's efforts to expand its scope of diplomatic activities to the Middle East where tension between Israel and Palestine has recently intensified and the extremist Isl

Dec. 18, 2014

Seoul FM meets with U.S. congressman critical of Japan’s sex slavery stance

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met Wednesday with a U.S. congressman who spearheaded an effort for the passage of a landmark 2007 resolution on Japan’s wartime sex slavery in the U.S. House of Representatives, officials said.Rep. Michael Makoto Honda, a California Democrat whose district includes the Silicon Valley, arrived in Seoul earlier in the day for a five-day stay to meet government officials to discuss an alliance between Seoul and Washington and situations in Northeast Asia.

Dec. 17, 2014

Korea sends backup staff to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone

A team of three South Korean officials departed for Sierra Leone Tuesday as part of the country’s efforts to help fight the Ebola virus in the West African country.The officials from the country’s foreign and health ministries will join the 10-person medical team South Korea dispatched last week to fight the contagious disease in Sierra Leone, the foreign ministry said.The medical team is now undergoing training at an Ebola response center near London, Britain, for their mission in the West Afri

Dec. 16, 2014

China says no invite for anniversary of NK leader's death

China on Tuesday confirmed it has not received an invitation to attend a ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the death of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but said it would "respect" Pyongyang's decision.    Kim, the father of North Korea's current young leader Kim Jong-un, died of heart failure on Dec. 17, 2011. Under Confucianism tradition, Wednesday's anniversary is considered significant for the young leader because it means the end of the three-year period of official mourning

Dec. 16, 2014

S. Korea, China team up on Japan's wartime sexual slavery

In what appears to be the first joint history study between South Korea and China, government-backed researchers from the two nations have agreed to launch a joint research on the Japanese military's sexual enslavement of women during World War II, according to Chinese state-run media on Tuesday.    The agreement, signed by South Korea's foreign ministry-funded Northeast Asian History Foundation and China's Jilin Provincial Archives on Monday, calls for the researchers to "find the truth" of the

Dec. 16, 2014

Foreign minister to visit Israel, Palestine next week

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se plans to visit Israel and Palestine next week to discuss ways to help resolve security issues in the Middle Eastern region, a government official said Monday.   Yun plans to discuss ways to step up cooperation as well as the security situations at the Korean Peninsula and the North East Asian and Middle Eastern regions during his separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers, slated for Dec. 21-22, the high-level government official said.   Yun's

Dec. 15, 2014