South Korea and four other middle-power nations launched an informal consultation body in New York on Wednesday to boost their say on regional and global issues, the Foreign Ministry said.Dubbed MIKTA, the group also includes Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia. Foreign ministers from the five countries held the inaugural meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, presenting their respective issues of interest and discussing priority projects for the next several months. Korean F

Sept. 26, 2013

The foreign ministers of Korea and Japan plan to hold talks in the U.S. this week in an apparent attempt to restore the two countries’ relations soured by historical and territorial feuds. Yun Byung-se will meet with Fumio Kishida on Thursday in New York on the margins of the annual U.N. General Assembly slated for Sept. 17 to Oct. 1. This will be their second bilateral discussion since they were sworn in early this year.With some ranking Japanese officials continuing to deny wartime atrocities,

Sept. 23, 2013

Papua New Guinean Ambassador to South Korea Bill Veri underscored his nation’s commitment to making sure resource development projects in his country benefit not only foreign investors and the national government, but also traditional landowners, on Papua New Guinea’s 38th Independence Day.Veri said the island nation was committed to ensuring everyone benefits from the enormous potential that lies in developing Papua New Guinea’s vast mineral and energy wealth during an Independence Day receptio

Sept. 22, 2013

New Zealand Embassy and Tertiary Education officials and Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce pitched the Asia-Pacific nation as place to study at the 2013 New Zealand Education Fair at COEX in southern Seoul on Sept. 14-15. The fair supported the embassy’s “Study in New Zealand” campaign, and more than 30 New Zealand institutions from various areas of education were represented at the two-day fair. “There’s nothing quite like this sort of face-to-face interaction to give students and the

Sept. 22, 2013

The Malaysian Embassy’s trade and investment center is inviting Korean companies to register for INTRADE 2013, a trade fair to take place in Kuala Lumpur from Nov. 24-28, to meet prospective business partners from both developed and emerging economic sectors.Korean companies that participate in INTRADE 2013, the seventh International Trade Malaysia, can be matched with prospective Malaysian partners in one-on-one meetings during the trade fair, according to the embassy. INTRADE 2013 will focus o

Sept. 22, 2013

A U.S. museum has decided to return a seal used by a queen of Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) after confirming it was stolen by an American soldier during the 1950-53 Korean War, a South Korean lawmaker said Thursday. Rep. An Min-suk of the main opposition Democratic Party said officials at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art expressed their intention to return the artifact to South Korea and issued a statement confirming the decision. "Our persistent efforts to collect evidence and demand (

Sept. 20, 2013

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― Chief nuclear envoys from North Korea and China held talks in Beijing and shared “in-depth views” on ways to resume the six-party talks on ending the Norths’ nuclear weapons program, China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. A delegation headed by North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan arrived in Beijing on Monday, nearly three weeks after Kim held talks in Pyongyang with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei. The North Korean delegation included Pyongyang’s chief

Sept. 17, 2013

South Korea called on Japan Monday to comply with the basic ideology of its peace-promoting constitution as Tokyo is making legal efforts to beef up its military might.Japan is moving to amend its post-war constitution in order to strengthen its military, whose capacity is now confined mainly to self-defense activities. The pacifist constitution, written after the country’s defeat in World War II, prohibits Japan’s rearmament as well as the deployment of its forces abroad.“We are repeatedly dema

Sept. 16, 2013

The Japanese government is moving to protest South Korea’s ban on all fisheries products from Fukushima and adjacent regions for fear of radioactive exposure, posing another strain on the bilateral relations already frayed by historical rows. A high-ranking official at Japan’s Fisheries Agency is set to visit South Korea on Monday in an apparent move to pressure Seoul into lifting the import ban, reports said.Kenji Kagawa, director-general of Resources Enhancement Promotion Department, will requ

Sept. 15, 2013

Some three dozen ambassadors and heads of foreign diplomatic missions here in South Korea convened for a day-long forum on the nation’s ties with Africa in the Memorial Hall at the National Assembly on Friday. Diplomatic representatives of all 17 African nations with embassy-level ties here participated along with many others from the foreign diplomatic community in the “National Assembly Forum for Africa’s New Era” which sought to promote bilateral ties between the African region and South Kore

Sept. 15, 2013