Kyrgyzstan is putting behind a decade of conflict and moving forward as a democratic nation, Kyrgyz Ambassador Duishenkul Chotonov said in commemorating the April and Tulip Revolutions. The April Revolution in 2010 ousted former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and established a new constitution and parliament as the first Central Asian country. Bakiyev replaced his predecessor Askar Akayev in a landslide election victory in 2005 after the Tulip Revolution.“Since 2010, our country embarked on a path

April 12, 2015

South Korea plans to send a special envoy to Russia for Moscow's war victory anniversary next month, the foreign ministry here said Saturday, indicating the Seoul president likely will not attend the event expected to bring the North Korean leader.Russia has sent invitations to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as well as other leaders, for its May ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, and Pyongyang

April 11, 2015

President Park Geun-hye will tour Brazil and three other South American countries later this month to bolster South Korea's partnership with the region, the presidential office said Friday.Park will fly to Colombia on April 16 and then to Peru, Chile and Brazil before returning home on April 27, Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary for diplomatic affairs, told reporters."The president plans to hold summit meetings with the heads of each state to discuss mutual interests, including ways to b

April 10, 2015

South Korea and Turkmenistan agreed Friday to expand economic ties in the private sector by setting up a special committee on new areas of cooperation, the government said.The agreement, reached at the fifth bilateral cooperation meeting in Seoul, calls for the committee made up of both government and private sector representatives to meet and pin point future areas of business interest, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.No date has been given on when the first meeting of t

April 10, 2015

South Korea and Japan will hold their first high-level security talks in more than five years next week, the foreign ministry here said Friday, amid renewed tension over historical and territorial issues.The so-called 2+2 talks, involving two senior foreign affairs and defense officials from each side, will be held in Seoul on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. They will be led by Lee Sang-deok, director of Northeast Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, and his Japanese counterpart, Ju

April 10, 2015

A U.S.-Japan defense pact in the final stage of negotiations is likely to address South Korea's demand that Tokyo should win Seoul's consent before exercising its collective self-defense right in contingencies around the Korean Peninsula, sources said Thursday.The United States and Japan have negotiated to revise the 1997 Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation to reflect changes in regional and global security situations. The negotiations are in the final stage with a view to conclude the

April 10, 2015

BEIJING--South Korea and China held a ceremony in Beijing on Thursday as the number of the two nations visitors to each others' country surpassed 10 million people last year.    The number of Chinese visitors to South Korea soared 46 percent from a year ago to 6.33 million people last year, while the number of South Korean visitors to China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, grew 3.6 percent to 4.1 million, according to the South Korean Embassy.    The surge was fueled by a growing popularity of Ko

April 9, 2015

Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo on Thursday urged Japan not to distort facts related to the history between the two countries, days after Tokyo stepped up its territorial claims to the easternmost islets of Dokdo.“(Japan) must refrain from distorting historical facts based on things that are simply not true ... History will sternly judge such attempts to cover up the truth,” Lee said in a meeting with reporters at the Seoul Government Complex in central Seoul.Lee specifically criticized Japan’s so-ca

April 9, 2015

South Korea's point man on North Korea vowed Thursday to make more efforts to open an official dialogue channel between the sides.  Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo made the remark as inter-Korean ties have been strained over various issues, including Pyongyang's decision to raise wages for North Korean workers hired by South Korean businesses at a joint industrial complex.  Seoul has proposed government-level talks to settle the issue, but Pyongyang has spurned the offer, insisting on its sov

April 9, 2015

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo issued a strong warning against Japan Thursday for its continued attempt to distort the countries' shared history.  In a press conference, Lee warned that the Japanese government will face "grim historical judgment" if it sticks to such a wrongful campaign.  He stressed Japan "can't cover up unequivocal historical truth."  It is highly unusual for South Korea's prime minister to directly deliver such a tough message against a neighboring country and major

April 9, 2015

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se called Thursday for a universal development agenda as the United Nations prepares to establish a new set of development goals for the next 15 years.  "Whether we attain universality could make or break the post-2015 system," he said in his opening speech at a high-level symposium of the 2015 U.N. Development Cooperation Forum in Songdo, west of Seoul. "Just as we have no 'planet B,' we have no 'plan B' except for a universal, win-win agenda for sustaina

April 9, 2015

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter arrived here Thursday to meet with his South Korean counterpart on ways to improve joint capabilities against North Korea on his first trip to Northeast Asia since taking office last month.Drawing key attention is whether Carter will bring up the possible U.S. deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD) system on the peninsula, though Seoul and Washington officials have said they would not touch upon the sensitive issue at this time.Washin

April 9, 2015

Senior diplomats from South Korea and China held talks in Beijing this week during which they discussed a range of issues, including arms control and bilateral ties, the Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday.      Yoo Dae-jong, director-general of the International Organizations Bureau at South Korea's Foreign Ministry, met Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong on Wednesday.  Yoo and Li "had an in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern, including Sino-Korea relations, internatio

April 9, 2015

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se dismissed public concerns here Thursday that the United States may be placing more emphasis on its alliance with Japan than that with Seoul.  "The South Korea-U.S. alliance and the U.S.-Japan alliance are not a zero-sum game," he told Yonhap News Agency after addressing a U.N. development forum.  The two are mutually beneficial in terms of regional security, he added. Formally, the U.S. government maintains its longstanding position not to directly inte

April 9, 2015

South Korea and China have agreed to help boost bilateral trade under the recently concluded free trade agreement, a move that will require self-restraint when imposing excessive antidumping duties, the Seoul government said Thursday.  In an annual meeting, the countries' trade commissions also vowed to complete fair and transparent antidumping investigations into products from each country, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.  The meeting, the first of its kind since the tw

April 9, 2015