Korea, Hong Kong to streamline automated immigration checks

South Korea's government on Tuesday said it has agreed with Hong Kong to simplify the automated immigration procedures for each other starting next week, by eliminating the mandatory online preregistration.The Ministry of Justice said South Korean nationals and Hong Kong citizens will be able to use the automated immigration system when visiting each other's countries without preregistering online starting Monday.Under the new plan, South Koreans aged 17 or older visiting Hong Kong can register

Aug. 16, 2016

Commander of U.S. Army Pacific visits S. Korea

The commander of the U.S. Army Pacific visited South Korea earlier this week, a trip that included a visit to the U.S. Army unit set to operate the THAAD missile defense system to be deployed by the Asian ally, a military official said Saturday.Gen. Robert Brown's two-day trip to South Korea which started on Tuesday was part of his swing through the region that also included a stop in Japan, according to a military official who asked not to be named. It was Brown's first trip to South Korea sinc

Aug. 13, 2016

China tightens tourist visa rules for S. Koreans amid THAAD row

China tightened its rules on tourist visa issuance for South Koreans, the foreign ministry here said Friday, the second revision to its regulations in less than two weeks that comes amid a diplomatic row over Seoul's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense shield on its soil.China notified its four visa centers in South Korea earlier in the day of a new rule requiring group tourist visa seekers to present original passports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief note to the

Aug. 12, 2016

Japan pledges to transfer comfort women fund swiftly: foreign ministry

Japan's foreign minister pledged Friday to "swiftly" transfer funds to assist South Korean victims of the country's colonial-era sexual enslavement, the foreign ministry here said, as the two neighbors ironed out the final details of a deal aimed at ending the decades-old feud over this painful issue.Seoul's top diplomat Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida held telephone talks earlier in the day before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the Japanese decision."Foreign M

Aug. 12, 2016

Korea, Japan agree on usage of comfort women fund: report

South Korea and Japan have agreed on the thorny issue on how to use the fund Tokyo will provide Seoul to compensate victims of sexual enslavement during the colonial occupation era, a Japanese media report said Friday.The two countries' foreign ministers will hold telephone talks later in the day to confirm the agreement and officially announce it, Kyodo News said.To put an end to the decades-old diplomatic row over the wartime atrocity committed during the colonial period (1910-45), the neighbo

Aug. 12, 2016

China tightens visa regulations on group tourists: industry officials

South Koreans who want to apply for a group tourist visa will have to submit their passports instead of a copy to travel agencies starting from next week under new regulations, industry officials said Friday.  The consular office of the Chinese Embassy earlier in the day notified Korean travel agencies of the toughened rules for tourist groups composed of at least five people. Industry officials said that the new requirement would complicate the visa application process, with about 90 percent of

Aug. 12, 2016

Kerry says U.S.-Korea alliance brings peace in Northeast Asia

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the "critical security alliance" with South Korea is key to peace and stability in Northeast Asia, as he issued a congratulatory message ahead of South Korea's Liberation Day."Our bilateral partnership continues to thrive based on our shared values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Our enduring relationship brings opportunities and prosperity to our two countries, and our critical security alliance brings peace and stabilit

Aug. 12, 2016

Korea to confer state media on Japanese diplomat

South Korea will confer a state medal on Japan's U.N. ambassador, Koro Bessho, for his contribution to relations between the two countries.South Korean Ambassador Oh Joon will award the Gwanghwa Medal of the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit to the Japanese envoy in a ceremony at the South's mission to the U.N. in New York on Friday, the office said.The medal is the highest honor in the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit.Before taking office as U.N. ambassador in June, Bessho served as Japan's to

Aug. 12, 2016

Xi Jinping loses ground in popularity poll among S. Koreans amid THAAD row

Fewer South Koreans said they think positively of Chinese President Xi Jinping this month compared to early July, a local public opinion poll showed Thursday. The result has been attributed to the growing diplomatic row between South Korea and China over the planned deployment of an advanced U.S. missile shield in the country. The survey conducted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies from Aug. 1-3 showed the Chinese president received 4.47 points on the 0-10 scale designed to gauge the favor

Aug. 11, 2016

Controversy persists in Korea over restrictions on Google Maps

A yearslong controversy over restrictions on Google Maps persists in South Korea, about two months after the world's biggest search engine again requested the Korean government to allow it to export government-supplied map data outside of the country. Google had made the same request in 2010, but it was rejected because South Korea's National Security Law, drafted more than a half century ago to fight communism, banned the Korean government from sending such map data to other countries. For Goog

Aug. 10, 2016

THAAD row feared to hurt S. Korea-China alliance against N.K.'s nuclear threat

China has been ramping up its opposition to South Korea's plan to deploy a U.S. advanced missile defense system on its soil, with some of its scholars even raising a possibility that it could end up hurting their alliance in coping with the nuclear and missile threats from Pyongyang.In a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday with six first-term lawmakers from the major opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, Chinese scholars were united in expressing strong objections to the planned deployment of the Terminal

Aug. 10, 2016

S. Korea, Japan make 'significant' progress in followup talks on comfort women foundation

South Korea and Japan made "significant" progress in their talks to draw up followup measures related to a foundation recently launched to help the Korean women sexually enslaved by Japanese troops during its colonial rule decades ago, a government source said Tuesday. The headway was made during a meeting held in Seoul between Chung Byung-won, director-general of the South Korean foreign ministry’s Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, and his Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, according to the so

Aug. 9, 2016

Korea strongly condemns suicide bombing in Pakistan

South Korea Tuesday strongly condemned a recent suicide bombing in Pakistan that left over 70 people dead, vowing to maintain its global cooperation in eradicating terrorism.On Monday, a man wearing a bomb jacket blew himself up among people who gathered outside a hospital at Quetta located in the southwestern part of Pakistan. Local media reports said that 71 people have been confirmed dead with over 100 others injured."We cannot but express our shock and concern over the terror attack that hap

Aug. 9, 2016

Korea attends Asia-Pacific mission to prepare for natural disasters

South Korea's military officials and civilian experts have participated in an annual Asia-Pacific mission designed to jointly work on preparing for natural disasters, the U.S. Pacific Command said Tuesday.More than 900 military and civilian teams from 14 countries are now taking part in this year's Pacific Partnership mission, the military command said in a telephone press briefing from Malaysia.It said the nations taking part in the talks have discussed ways to improve the ability of partner na

Aug. 9, 2016

Comfort women foundation chief calls for Abe to meet victims

Japan's prime minister should meet South Korean women who were sexually enslaved during the colonial rule period, which will help cap the long-festering wound that has weighed down bilateral relations for the past seven decades, the head of a local foundation tasked with helping victims said."The establishment of the foundation can lay to rest the 'sexual slavery' issue, but it is not the end of the agenda," Kim Tae-hyun, the first board director of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, sai

Aug. 9, 2016

Korea, Japan to discuss follow-up measures to comfort women foundation this week

South Korea and Japan will hold a meeting this week to discuss follow-up measures related to a foundation launched to help Korean women sexually abused by Japan during its colonial rule of the peninsula decades ago, the foreign ministry said Monday.The meeting will be held in Seoul on Tuesday between Chung Byung-won, director-general of the South Korean foreign ministry's Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, and his Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, according to the ministry. The meeting will mar

Aug. 9, 2016