Despite the protracted economic slowdown, the world’s advanced countries should ramp up efforts to meet their aid commitments to help needy partners fight poverty, diseases and other grave challenges, senior development agency officials said. Brian Atwood, chair of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, a club of major patrons of poor countries, and Sigrid Kaag, assistant administrator and director of the U.N. Development Programme’s partnerships bureau, warned of a potential negative impa

Oct. 11, 2012

South Korea is stepping up last-ditch efforts to win a nonpermanent seat in the U.N. Security Council ahead of a vote scheduled for Oct. 18.Seoul is pitching its role in Northeast Asian security and world peace stemming from its strategic location and North Korea’s threat, to achieve one of this year’s biggest diplomatic projects.The country is vying against Cambodia and Bhutan to secure a two-thirds majority required for the slot assigned to Asian countries. The winner will replace India, whose

Oct. 10, 2012

After more than a year of fruitless job hunting, Dawin Perez no longer worries where his family’s next meal will come from. With help from the Korean government and the United Nations Development Programme, Perez took part in a month-long training session at Cemprende, a local employment and entrepreneurship support center in his hometown of Cartagena, Colombia.“I couldn’t find work for a year and a half. Raising a family isn’t easy when there’s no money, but this opportunity was given to me and

Oct. 10, 2012

The embassies of Oman and the United Kingdom opened their embassy doors for public tours on Thursday, as part of Seoul City’s “Seoul Open Week.” Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon will open his residence to the public for the first time during Seoul Open Week, and the festival was peppered with an array of cultural events in the capital.Omani Ambassador to Korea Mohamed Salim Alharthy said it was a very good opportunity to introduce its brand-new embassy building to the public and give them a glimpse of

Oct. 7, 2012

Central and South American embassies in Seoul brought to Seoul, with Gallery Bellarte and Araart, paintings by Latin American artists, some exhibiting to the public here for the first time. The exhibition opened at Araart’s gallery in Insadong on Sept. 28 and closed Sunday.The exhibition was a part of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and some 16 Latin American countries.Paintings by artists from such painters as Hernan Miranda o

Oct. 7, 2012

Some three dozen foreign envoys and their families were treated to a traditional Korean dinner and a moonlight promenade at Changdeok Palace by Choe Kwan-shik, the minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on Wednesday to celebrate Korea’s National Foundation Day. “The palace is usually closed at night, so this visit is a very special experience,” said Bang Sun-gyu, director-general of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. “Korean traditional architecture works to fit into the environment

Oct. 7, 2012

‘We are all essentially responsible for helping them out. That’s what good humanitarian assistance is all about.’A vexing dilemma of international engagement with North Korea is whether humanitarian aid to ordinary people there helps prop up the regime that abuses its own people.It’s a moral Catch-22 that confounds easy answers where an obvious good ― feeding starving children ― might support an obvious evil by propping up a ruthlessly oppressive regime.“People do say that, but if you tie yourse

Oct. 7, 2012

South Korea on Thursday shrugged off news reports that Japan plans to initiate international litigation over Dokdo this month. Nihon Keizai Shimbun of Japan reported that Tokyo is likely to unilaterally bring the case to the International Court of Justice in October as Seoul rejected its proposal for a joint filing. “I’d like to emphasize again that Japan must not damage Korea-Japan relations and public sentiment by repeating its unjust claim to Dokdo but should make efforts for the development

Oct. 4, 2012

Aerial view of Dokdo islets (The Korea Herald)Japan may unilaterally take its island territorial dispute with South Korea to the International Court of Justice, Japanese government sources told Kyodo News.The dispute concerns the Korean-controlled islands that lie between the two countries, which Japan also claims. South Korea refers to them as Dokdo, while Japan calls them Takeshima.The Japanese

Oct. 4, 2012

A few days ago, when a child of a newly arrived Korean diplomat joined his school in Beirut, the first question he got from his Lebanese classmates was whether he was able to sing and dance to the popular Korean song “Gangnam Style.”Today we live in an interconnected world. People-to-people connectivity that governments have championed for decades is being achieved in the cultural arena among younger generations, undeterred by borders and physical distances. In the past, when it came to promotin

Oct. 3, 2012

A newly forged cultural agreement will reinforce relations between the two countriesThe explanation presented by the Japanese government on the annexation of Dokdo is oversimplified. Nakai Yozaburo, a resident of Shimane Prefecture in Japan, wished to obtain a exclusive permit to hunt sea lions on Dokdo, according to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1904, he filed a petition with the Japanese government and the islets were subsequently “incorporated” into Japanese territory on

Oct. 3, 2012