Seoul, Washington, Tokyo to meet over N.K. nukes next week

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 to build closer partnership with U.S.: White House official

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

‘Missing Korean in Turkey intended to vanish’

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

China's vice premier to visit S. Korea, tourism high on agenda

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

"I want to join IS", missing Korean teen tweeted

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

Seoul calls in Japan envoy to protest Dokdo claim

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

‘Missing Korean in Turkey moved to Syrian border’

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 must heed calls on wartime sex slaves: scholar

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

Tourists flock to Turkey as lira falls in value

With the value of Turkey’s lira plummeting nearly by half against major currencies over the last five years, tourists are flocking to the country from all over the world, its tourism association Tursab said on New Year’s Day.More than 250,000 Korean tourists traveled to Turkey last year, a more than 30 percent increase from 2013. Turkey received nearly 38 million international visitors in the same year, raking in $28 billion in revenue.The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul ― one of the largest and oldest

Jan. 18, 2015

Pope visits typhoon-hit Philippine city to console survivors

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) -- Pope Francis traveled to the far eastern Philippines on Saturday to comfort survivors of a devastating 2013 typhoon, braving rains and heavy winds himself and conceding that it was hard to find the right words when surrounded by so much pain."So many of you have lost everything," Francis told 150,000 Catholic faithful gathered before Mass under a steady rain in an open field near the airport in Tacloban, the city hit hardest by Typhoon Haiyan. `"I don't know what to

Jan. 17, 2015

Korea, Japan set for sex slavery talks

Seoul and Tokyo are set for a fresh round of talks aimed at resolving their row over Japan’s sexual slavery involving Korean women during World War II in an effort to narrow their historical differences and improve bilateral ties. Lee Sang-deok, director-general for Northeast Asian affairs at the Foreign Ministry here, is slated to meet with Junichi Ihara, director-general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s Foreign Ministry, on Monday in Tokyo. Launched last April, the consultations will

Jan. 16, 2015

Foreign minister to attend Davos forum next week

South Korea’s foreign minister will leave for Switzerland next week to attend this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum to discuss global economic and geopolitical issues, officials said Thursday.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se is likely to depart Seoul around Wednesday to attend the forum to be held in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, officials from the foreign ministry said. The forum is scheduled to kick off on Wednesday for a four-day run.This year’s forum is expected to draw about 2,

Jan. 15, 2015

U.S. experts pressure Abe on history

Amid Japan’s frosty relations with Korea and China, a growing number of U.S. scholars are ramping up pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to take a more forward-looking approach toward wartime history. The hawkish premier is currently working on a statement to be unveiled on Aug. 15 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, which will likely determine Tokyo’s relations with its two key neighbors. With Abe pushing for a constitutional revision, a greater military role and

Jan. 15, 2015

Rep. Suh demands Tokyo uphold 1993 Kono apology

Suh Chung-won, a senior lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, pressured Tokyo to uphold a 1993 landmark apology for Japan’s wartime enslavement of Asian women Thursday, stressing any step backward would further worsen the bilateral relationship. During a meeting with Korean correspondents in Japan, Suh said that among many pending bilateral issues, what mattered the most was restoring the honor of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II.“Japan should again p

Jan. 15, 2015

S. Korea, Japan reach agreement on fishing quota in exclusive waters

South Korea and Japan have belatedly reached an agreement on the amount of fish they can catch in each other's exclusive waters over the next 18 months, the Seoul government said Monday.The two countries had been unable to renew their annual fisheries agreement for the July 2014-June 2015 period.Negotiations for the 2014-2015 agreement began early last year, but they had been unable to narrow their differences over Japan's request to operate a 199-ton ship in South Korean waters.Japan also wante

Jan. 12, 2015