Prime Minister Shinzo Abe branded the murder of a Japanese hostage by Islamic State militants "outrageous and impermissible" on Sunday and demanded the release of a second hostage, amid a growing global chorus of revulsion.Abe spoke as the grieving father of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa said he had gone "totally blank" since learning of his son's execution, announced in a video posted online by the militants late Saturday. Abe, speaking to public broadcaster NHK, said he was "

Jan. 25, 2015

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for more efforts to bolster tourism and cultural exchanges with South Korea, expressing his eagerness to further strengthen the already-robust economic ties between the two countries, an official Chinese government website said Saturday.Xi made the remarks in his congratulatory message marking the launch of the "Year of Visit to China" in South Korea on Friday, according to the message posted on the website of China's foreign ministry on Saturday. During t

Jan. 25, 2015

Top economic policymakers of South Korea and China agreed Friday to work closely together to quickly ratify the bilateral free trade pact reached last year.In a meeting held in downtown Seoul, South Korea's Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the free trade agreement is an important issue that directly impacts all sides, the finance ministry said.The FTA, effectively agreed upon in November, has yet to be formally signed and must be approved by lawmakers

Jan. 23, 2015

The United States is seeking to establish a formula for implementing a three-way military intelligence sharing deal with South Korea and Japan aimed at better coping with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.The issue was a key topic when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by phone with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo this week, the source said. Hagel is expected to talk about it again when he speaks with Japanese Defense Minister

Jan. 23, 2015

The U.S. pointman on North Korea will visit Japan and China next week for discussions with his counterparts over how to deal with Pyongyang, the State Department announced Thursday.Amb. Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea policy, will be in Tokyo on Jan. 27-28 for a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, the department said in a release.Kim will be accompanied by Sydney Seiler, special envoy for the six-party talks on the North's nuclear program, as well

Jan. 23, 2015

The top nuclear negotiators from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Tokyo next week to discuss ways to resume the long-stalled six-party talks on North Korea‘s denuclearization, officials said Thursday.Seoul’s top nuke envoy, Hwang Joon-kook, will meet with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Junichi Ihara, on Wednesday to discuss Pyongyang‘s nuclear weapons program and situations on the Korean Peninsula, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.For the talks, Hwang

Jan. 22, 2015

An additional 2,091 South Koreans have been confirmed as victims of forced labor by imperial Japan who ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony during the first half of the 20th century, the Seoul government said Thursday.The new victims were discovered after new records were found kept at the South Korean Embassy in June, 2013. Out of the 5,157 names listed on the records, 2,091 were immediately confirmed as bona-fide victims of Japan's forced labor.The records were compiled in 1953 under the Rhe

Jan. 22, 2015

South Korea has inked memorandums of understanding to promote financial cooperation with Costa Rica and Peru, the finance ministry said Thursday.The pacts, reached during Vice Finance Minister Bang Moon-kyu's visit to the Latin American countries, call for comprehensive cooperation aimed at sharing financial data and fiscal policy know-how. They also outline closer ties in policy implementation and management systems set up by the South Korean government.The finance ministry added that the lates

Jan. 22, 2015

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States agreed Thursday to boost military cooperation to better deter security threats in cyberspace, Seoul's defense ministry said.During a 20-minute telephone conversation, South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and the U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel "exchanged their opinions on pending security issues," ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing."Han voiced support for the U.S. government's efforts with regards to the hackin

Jan. 22, 2015

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert said Thursday that he has given his newborn son the Korean middle name of Sejun, literally meaning "clean and excellent."Lippert said on his Twitter account that his son who was born Monday in Seoul has been named as James William Sejun Lippert, saying that the Korean middle name was based on a concept of "saju," or the four pillars of destiny -- the year, month, day and hour of birth that are believed to decide a person's destiny or fate.The name Seju

Jan. 22, 2015

The top nuclear negotiators from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Tokyo next week to discuss ways to resume the long-stalled six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization, officials said Thursday.Seoul's top nuke envoy, Hwang Joon-kook, will meet with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Junichi Ihara, on Wednesday to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and situations on the Korean Peninsula, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.For the talks, Hwang

Jan. 22, 2015

Japan should address history issues by promoting the healing of wartime wounds if it wants to build a closer partnership with the United States, a White House official said Wednesday.Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the White House's National Security Council, made the remark during a Brookings Institution seminar, saying the U.S. wants to see a Japan that is "influential, credible, active and a strong partner.""Only by effectively addressing history issues by promoting healin

Jan. 22, 2015

A Korean teenager who went missing in Turkey earlier this month had deliberately planned his trip and disappearance near the Syrian border, the police said Wednesday, raising the possibility of his involvement with the Islamic State militant group. The 18-year-old tourist from Seoul, surnamed Kim, vanished on Jan. 10 after leaving a hotel in the border town of Kilis, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Foreign Ministry. He initially set foot in Istanbul on Jan. 8 and flew to th

Jan. 21, 2015

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang is set to make a three-day visit to South Korea, where promoting tourism and commercial ties between the two nations will be high on the agenda, China's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Wang will arrive in Seoul on Thursday and launch the "Year of Visit to China," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters during a regular press briefing. Wang is also scheduled to hold talks with South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan during the visit.

Jan. 21, 2015

A missing South Korean teenager suspected of joining the Islamic State group had a twitter account, "Sunni Mujahideen", on which he tweeted his desire to enrol with the militant group, police said Wednesday.The 18-year-old middle school dropout, identified only by his surname Kim, went missing in Turkey earlier this month, and there is speculation that he crossed into Syria."Many materials suggest that he was greatly interested in IS, but we cannot confirm whether he has joined them", Chung Jae-

Jan. 21, 2015

South Korea rebuked Japan Wednesday over the distribution of a Korean-language version of its defense white paper depicting Seoul's easternmost islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory.The defense ministry said it summoned the military attache from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul earlier in the day to protest Japan's act to hand out the summary of its defense paper that laid territorial claim to the Dokdo islets."The Seoul government lodged a strong protest against Japan in order to prevent such an u

Jan. 21, 2015

A Korean teenager who has gone missing in Turkey had moved to near the Syrian border with a local man by car, Seoul officials said Tuesday, sparking speculation that he might have entered the conflict-ridden country and joined the Islamic State militant group. The 18-year-old tourist, surnamed Kim from Seoul, vanished on Jan. 10 after leaving a hotel in the border town of Kilis, according to Korea’s Foreign Ministry and police. He touched down in Istanbul on Jan. 8 and flew to the southern city

Jan. 20, 2015

Japan’s national interests could be eventually undermined unless it heeds calls for resolving a long-standing issue of wartime sex slaves that continues to fray Tokyo’s ties with its neighbors, a South Korean scholar warned Tuesday.Seok Tong-youn, secretary-general of the Seoul-based Northeast Asian History Foundation, also blasted some right-wing nationalists in Japan for trying to obliterate the Japanese military’s system of sexual slavery during World War II, denouncing the move as “nonsense.

Jan. 20, 2015