Australia’s special advisor on green growth was appointed Tuesday as the new director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute, the Seoul-based organization said. Howard Bamsey will replace Richard Samans, who will return to the World Economic Forum as managing director for global cooperation after spearheading the GGGI’s transformation into an international body last year. Bamsey, who took office immediately, is also an adjunct professor at Australian National University’s Climate Change In

April 16, 2013

MANILA, Philippines (AP) --  Two Chinese military officers have for the first time joined a closed-door discussion on disaster response which is part of major annual U.S.-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has protested in the past.   Philippine Brig. Gen. Aurelio Baladad says the inclusion of military officers from the United States and China along with nine other countries in Monday's talks on responding to sea disasters shows that major powers sometimes seen as rivals can work togethe

April 15, 2013

An entire nation stopped its daily routine for two minutes on Monday. Drivers stopped their cars on crowded highways and got out to stand quietly on the street as mourning sirens wailed throughout Israel, as they do every year, to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.Here in Seoul, too, far away from the Middle East, the Israeli Embassy and about 100 guests including some two dozen foreign envoys held a silence to remember the 6 million Jews systematically murdered during World War II by Nazi Germany,

April 14, 2013

The Indonesian Embassy in Korea hosted the foreign diplomatic community, business executives with ties in the Southeast Asian country and local media on April 4 to more fully introduce its country and its top diplomatic representative here.The country went through rapid changes over the past decade, including sweeping democratic reforms and the settlement of a decades-old dispute in East Timor.“Although our transition to democracy in the 1990s and early 2000s was a bit chaotic, nevertheless we n

April 14, 2013

Lee Kyung-soo, minister at the Korean Embassy in Japan, was named the new deputy foreign minister Friday. Lee succeeded Kim Kyou-hyun, who was recently promoted to vice minister in charge of political affairs. Since entering the agency in 1981, Lee has served key posts including ambassador to Cambodia, director-general of South Asia-Pacific affairs, embassy councilor in Beijing and director of the Southeast Asian division. The Foreign Ministry also selected Shin Dong-ik, deputy representative at

April 12, 2013

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se confirmed Wednesday that North Korea has moved a mid-range Musudan ballistic missile to its east coast and Pyongyang is prepared to launch the missile "at any time."   "According to intelligence obtained by our side and the U.S., the possibility of a missile launch by North Korea is very high," Yun told a parliamentary hearing, adding that North Korea can launch the missile "at any time from now."   Yun said, "The Musudan missile has a range of 3,500 kilometers and

April 10, 2013

The Saudi Arabian Embassy announced it has upgraded its visa services for travelers and business persons going to the largest Arab country in western Asia.The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Korea will move its visa services to a single contractor, the VFS Tasheel International Visa Service Centre, as of April 15 to improve services for travelers and business people going to the Arab Kingdom. The embassy currently uses 10 designated travel agencies to process its visa applications.VFS Tasheel will prov

April 7, 2013

Tickets for this year’s Queen’s Birthday Ball, a glittery and regal gala organized annually to raise money for charity, are now on sale, the British Embassy here and the British Association of Seoul announced on Tuesday.The Queen’s Birthday Ball is one of the year’s biggest events for the foreign diplomatic and expatriate communities. The night will include a five-course dinner, delicious wines, a raffle of fabulous prizes and a live auction and dancing to the music of The Light Years, the band

April 7, 2013

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The U.S. government is taking a longer-term approach in dealing with one of the most urgent and thorniest bilateral issues with South Korea ― Seoul’s push for enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel, according to an official here on Monday.“The United States has been working with the Republic of Korea (South Korea) on the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste for over 30 years. The main current effort is a 10-year Joint Fuel Cycle Study, which is conside

April 2, 2013

The Global Green Growth Institute is considering moving to the international business district of Songdo, Incheon, to take advantage of a synergy effect with the Green Climate Fund and various incentives from the city government, officials told The Korea Herald. The Incheon city government has recently offered the Seoul-based GGGI benefits including a 10-year free lease of office space and operating cost subsidies. “We’re looking into the option after receiving an offer of free office space for

April 1, 2013

(Yonhap) -- South Korea faced a nerve-wracking several months in 1977 after the administration of then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter held up arms sales to foreign countries worth about US$6 billion, Seoul's declassified diplomatic documents showed Sunday.   The documents revealed that South Korean officials were worried about the months-long arms sales moratorium by Carter, who had at that time contemplated withdrawing ground combat troops from South Korea.   Carter's sudden decision to withdraw U

March 31, 2013