Seoul says no decision yet on joining China-led bank

South Korea said Wednesday it has yet to make a decision on whether to join a new regional bank led by China meant to fund infrastructure projects in Asia.  China launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in November with 21 nations in Asia and the Pacific region listed as its founding members. Australia and Japan -- two other U.S. allies in the region -- also have yet to make their decision.  The end of March is the deadline set by China for all interested parties to join the new bank,

March 18, 2015

S. Korea, Romania initial accord to expand visa waiver program

South Korea and Romania initialed an agreement Wednesday to expand a visa waiver program in a bid to beef up their cooperation, Seoul's foreign ministry said.  The move is expected to allow people, including those having business purposes, to stay up to 180 days in each other's countries without a visa, the foreign ministry said. The revised agreement is expected to be officially signed within this year.  Currently, a visa exemption is only applied to South Koreans and Romanians who travel to ea

March 18, 2015

S. Korea 'positively' mulling joining China-led bank: source

South Korea is "positively" considering joining a Chinese-led Asian regional bank, a South Korean diplomatic source with direct knowledge of the matter said Wednesday, raising the prospect for Seoul to join it despite Washington's opposition.   China launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in November with 21 nations in Asia and the Pacific region listed as its founding members. Close U.S. allies in the region -- South Korea, Australia and Japan -- have yet to make their decision.   Th

March 18, 2015

U.S. says it's up to S. Korea to decide on AIIB

The United States said Tuesday it is up to South Korea to decide whether to join a Chinese-led international development bank.  South Korea has been in a dilemma over whether to join the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank that China launched last year with 20 other nations in an effort to bolster its economic clout by creating a counterbalance to the Asia Development Bank led by the United States.   China has called for Seoul's participation and the United States has been negative about it.  Se

March 18, 2015

Philippine's Bloomberry eyes casino in S. Korea

Bloomberry Resorts Corp. of the Philippines said Tuesday it will buy land on a western island in South Korea and a local casino operator in a bid to build a new casino resort outside its home base.  Bloomberry, which owns the $1.2 billion Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, agreed to buy a 12.2 hectare plot of land on Silmi Island, west of Seoul, according to its report submitted to the local stock exchange.  Solaire Korea Co., a Korean subsidiary of Bloomberry, will acquire the property on Sil

March 17, 2015

Seoul seeks support from Kaesong firms over wage row

South Korea on Tuesday requested cooperation from local firms operating in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in dealing with North Korea's unilateral decision to raise wages for its workers.  In a meeting with the heads of 124 companies with factories in the zone, just north of the inter-Korean border, and 91 sales offices, a senior unification ministry official reaffirmed that Seoul would never accept Pyongyang's measure.  "You hold the key to resolving this incident. It is a matter that can be re

March 17, 2015

Nearly half of Chinese tourists to S. Korea visit Jeju Island

Almost one out of two Chinese tourists to South Korea visited the southern resort island of Jeju in 2014 thanks to the accommodative visa policy and expansion of direct flights and cheap cruise packages, the state tourism agency said Tuesday.  A total of 6.12 million Chinese traveled to South Korea last year, up 41.6 percent from 2013, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.   Jeju Island saw a sharp surge of Chinese travelers, whose number jumped 58 percent on-year to 2.86 million, the KTO

March 17, 2015

U.S. State Department revises Korea map to include Dokdo

The U.S. State Department revised a map of Korea on its website Monday to include a reference to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.  The islets, which Japan has long claimed, had not been marked in the Korea map in the website's U.S. Passports and International Travel section, while a map of Japan included a reference to the islets. That gave an impression that Dokdo belongs to Japan.  After learning of the omission, South Korea's foreign ministry asked the U.S. to fix the map.   The rev

March 17, 2015

U.S. accused of 'profound double standard' over punishment of Korean-American expert

The lawyer for a Korean-American man jailed for leaking classified information on North Korea has strongly accused the U.S. Justice Department of a "profound double standard" after the department recommended only a misdemeanor conviction for a former CIA director charged with a similar offense.  Abbe David Lowell, the attorney for Stephen Kim, a former State Department contractor, demanded that the Justice Department immediately release Kim, saying his client should have also been offered a misd

March 17, 2015

Britain's bid to join China-led bank to have 'big impact' on S. Korea

A decision by Britain to join a Chinese-led regional bank is likely to have a "big impact" on South Korea, which has yet to make a decision on whether to become founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, two South Korean diplomatic sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Monday.   The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said South Korea is still undecided on whether to join the AIIB by the end of this month, but indicated a mood of cautious optimism that

March 16, 2015

China voices concern over U.S. THAAD on Korean soil

China called on South Korea Monday to take heed of Beijing's concern over the possible deployment of an advance U.S. missile-defense system on South Korean soil when Seoul makes a decision on the issue.  The United States has expressed its hope to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in South Korea, but Seoul and Washington have said that there have been neither consultations nor a decision related to the THAAD deployment.  China has explicitly voiced its opposition to Washington

March 16, 2015

S. Korea places Chinese war dead in coffins for repatriation

South Korea placed the remains of 68 Chinese soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War in coffins Monday before sending them back to their homeland for final burial, Seoul's defense ministry said.  South Korea has pledged to repatriate the remains of the Chinese servicemembers and their keepsakes, its second such decision, in a symbolic gesture of friendship toward its former battlefield foe.  In March 2014, Seoul returned the remains of 437 Chinese soldiers killed on Korean soil during the

March 16, 2015

New Zealand PM to visit S. Korea next week

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key will visit Seoul next week for talks with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Park's office said Monday.  Park is set to meet with Key next Monday to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in a wide range of issues, including trade and economy, Park's office said.  South Korea and New Zealand also plan to formally sign a free trade agreement during Key's three-day visit set to begin on Sunday, according to Park's office.  South Korea said the signing of the

March 16, 2015

S. Korea demands Dokdo name reference in U.S. gov't tour map

South Korea has demanded that the United States include a reference to Seoul's easternmost islets of Dokdo in a map uploaded on its government website, a foreign ministry official said Monday.  The U.S. Department of State omits the reference of South Korea's rocky outcroppings in the map of Korea uploaded on its consular affairs bureau website, while a similar map for Japan carries the name.  "We've asked the U.S. government to rectify the map of Korea on the website involving the reference, th

March 16, 2015

Seoul, Tokyo to hold sex slavery talks

South Korea and Japan held talks on Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II on Monday as the two historical rivals make efforts to improve their strained ties in a landmark year, Seoul's foreign ministry said.  South Korea and Japan are seeking to improve their icy ties as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of their bilateral relations. The year also marks the 70th anniversary of Seoul's liberation from Tokyo's colonial rule in 1945.  Lee Sang-deok,

March 16, 2015

S. Korea to make decision on AIIB participation in mid-March

The South Korean government will make a final decision later this month on joining the China-led regional bank to fund development projects in Asia, a government official said Sunday, amid growing tensions between the United States and China over the body's governance.  "We will decide whether to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a founding member within this month and inform China of the result," said the official who asked not to be named, citing the sensitivity of the issue. "I

March 15, 2015

Abe never uses word 'apology' on sexual slavery issue: Japanese activist

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has never used the word "apology" on the issue of the country's sexual enslavement of women during World War II and is unlikely to do so in a statement marking the 70th anniversary of the war's end, a Japanese activist said Thursday.Mina Watanabe, secretary general of the Tokyo-based Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, made the remark during a presentation about how Japan has handled the sexual slavery issue at a seminar held at Johns Hopkins University's S

March 13, 2015

S. Korea, China, Japan urged to 'cherish' upcoming 3-way FM talks

South Korea, China and Japan should "cherish" the opportunity to hold the first three-way talks among foreign ministers in three years, a senior Chinese diplomat has said, as the three major East Asian economies move to overcome mutual diplomatic tensions. Senior diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan held their meeting in Seoul on Wednesday, during which they discussed the agenda of their foreign ministers' meeting later this month. The upcoming foreign ministers' talks come after a nearly

March 12, 2015

Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo vow to revive 3-way cooperation

South Korea, China and Japan vowed Wednesday to try to restore stagnant trilateral cooperation as they prepare for a meeting of their foreign ministers slated for late March.South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo met with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Liu Zhenmin and Shinsuke Sugiyama, respectively, to discuss how to revive trilateral cooperation amid Tokyo-sparked historical tension in the region.The three-way, high-level diplomats' meeting, the first

March 11, 2015

China FM urges calm, restraint on Korean Peninsula

China's foreign minister on Sunday called on all relevant countries to exercise calm and restraint on the Korean Peninsula, warning of "another delicate period" in the region.  "The situation on the Korean Peninsula is entering another delicate period," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference on the sidelines of an annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp parliament.Wang did not specify reasons for such an atmosphere in the region, but the remarks follow threats from North Korea on protes

March 8, 2015