The Japanese government has rejected a request by South Koreans to participate in searching for the remains of their family members who were forced to work for the Japanese military during the Pacific War, a Seoul civic group said Sunday.Earlier, the Association for Requesting Compensation for the Pacific War Victims had asked Tokyo to let South Korean families take part in its project to find and excavate the remains of Koreans who were conscripted by the Japanese military during its colonial r

Oct. 26, 2014

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye to improve relations soured by historical disputes between the two neighbors, Park's office said Friday.Abe conveyed his offer to Park through Fukushiro Nukaga, a lawmaker who led a Japanese parliamentary delegation to South Korea.In response, Park called for sincere efforts to ensure a possible summit can be successful through thorough preparations, saying bilateral ties worsened in the past followi

Oct. 25, 2014

Former U.S. President George W. Bush hosted a forum on North Korean human rights in Texas on Thursday (local time), his institute said.The George W. Bush Presidential Center said he met with leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss ways to address the North Korean human rights problem."Five North Korean refugees also shared their stories of escape and their experiences building new lives in the United States as a result of the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act, which President Bus

Oct. 24, 2014

South Korea and the United States will hold a high-level security meeting Friday that will bring together their top diplomats and defense chiefs for talks on their alliance and cooperation on regional and global matters, the State Department said.It will be the third time that the two allies have held the so-called "two plus two" meeting after the first one in 2010 and the second in 2012. Attending Friday's meeting will be South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Defense Minister Han Min-koo,

Oct. 24, 2014

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called Wednesday for expanding cooperation with the United States in energy and healthcare, saying both sectors offer bright prospects.Park made the remark in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker at the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, where the two sides discussed a range of issues, including the global economy, economic policies, entrepreneurship and ways to cooperate in the energy and health sectors, the office said in a news release

Oct. 22, 2014

North Korea is believed to have acquired a new type of submarine, a U.S. think tank said Sunday, citing an analysis of years of satellite imagery of the communist nation’s submarine bases and shipyards.The new submarine was moored in the secured boat basin at the Sinpo South Shipyard on the North’s northeast coast, according to a review of satellite imagery from 2010 until the present, according to the 38 North website run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Internati

Oct. 20, 2014

The Singaporean Embassy is inviting qualified students to apply for a state-scholarship for 2015. Submissions are open until Feb. 23, 2015.The Dr. Goh Keng Swee Scholarship Fund supports up to four years of undergraduate study, provides funds for tuition and other fees, roundtrip airfare to Singapore, and a living allowance. It was set up by the financial community in Singapore in honor of the country’s former deputy prime minister, who fostered Singapore’s economic development as an internation

Oct. 19, 2014

The ASEAN-Korea Center will host a forum on “Korea’s contribution to ASEAN connectivity” on Oct. 21 at the Convention Center of the Federation of Korean Industries in an effort to link Korean construction firms and investors to infrastructure-building opportunities in Southeast Asia. The goal of “ASEAN connectivity” is to solidify commercial exchanges between the 10 member nations of the organization: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and

Oct. 19, 2014

Seoul on Friday strongly condemned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ritual donation and a visit by more than 110 lawmakers to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, saying the moves defy its postwar peace pledges and international norms. Marking an autumn festival, Environment State Minister, Yasuhiro Ozato, Abe’s special aide Seiichi Eto and other Cabinet members and parliamentarians paid tribute at the Yasukuni Shrine. The premier, whose trip in December 2013 riled Korea and China, sent flow

Oct. 17, 2014

South Korea is likely to send a disaster relief team of volunteer medical workers to West Africa in an effort to help contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus there, government sources said Friday.Speaking at a biennial summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan on Thursday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said that Seoul will dispatch a group of medical workers to West Africa in a bid to lend support to the global efforts to curb Ebola.The decision came as the United Nations has been a

Oct. 17, 2014

South Korea expressed regret Thursday over Japan's continued denial of its coercion of Korean women into sex slavery during World War II, sternly warning the country not to gloss over its wartime history.Seoul's move came in response to Japan's request to the author of a U.N. report condemning Japan's sexual slavery to withdraw part of the content, citing Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun's retraction of an article on the issue.Radhika Coomaraswamy, a former U.N. special rapporteur on violence ag

Oct. 16, 2014