Incoming U.S. military chief says N.K. is one of greatest threats

The nominee to be the next chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday North Korea's ballistic missile capability makes the communist nation one of the greatest threats to the United States.   Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford made the remark during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, putting Pyongyang into the category of the four biggest threats to the U.S., along with Russia, China and the militant group Islamic State.   "Clearly, North Korea with ballistic missile

July 10, 2015

U.S. second lady to visit Seoul next week

The wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit South Korea next week for meetings on women's education and economic empowerment issues, the White House announced Thursday.   Jill Biden will be accompanied by Catherine Russell, ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, on the trip to Korea, Vietnam and Laos July 16-22, the top office said in a statement.   She will "engage government and civil society partners" on issues related to economic empowerment and educational opportunity for w

July 10, 2015

Seoul expects Iranian nuclear deal to affect N. Korea

South Korea expressed hope Thursday for a final deal between Iran and six global powers on Tehran's nuclear program, saying it could positively affect efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue."A peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue is expected to bring regional peace and the strengthening of the global nonproliferation regime," Foreign Ministry's spokesman Noh Kwang-il said at a press briefing.Based on a framework agreement made in April, the U.S.-led P5+1 group, including R

July 9, 2015

Senior diplomats of S. Korea, China hold talks

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Chinese Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui discussed bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday. Kim and Zhang met in Beijing on Wednesday, after the two nations held the first round of talks earlier this week to discuss a broad range of regional and bilateral issues, the brief statement said.Kim and his Chinese counterpart, Liu Jianchao, led the two-day talks

July 9, 2015

Canadian pension fund to oppose Samsung C&T merger: sources

The operator of Canada's public pension fund plans to vote against the planned merger of two Samsung Group units, sources said Thursday, joining the ranks of investors challenging the conglomerate's latest restructuring move.The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages Canada's pension fund, holds around a 0.2 percent stake in Samsung C&T Co. The South Korean firm aims to win approval for its merger plan with Cheil Industries Co., the de facto holding firm of Samsung Group, at the sha

July 9, 2015

U.S. official due in Seoul over missile defense

A senior U.S. official will visit Seoul on Thursday for talks on missile defense and other security issues, officials said.Frank A. Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, is scheduled to arrive here later in the day for a two-day stay.He will hold separate meetings with the director generals of the Foreign Ministry's international organizations bureau and North American affairs bureau to discuss space security and various issues related to arms reductio

July 9, 2015

S. Korean man found dead in Philippines

A South Korean man was found dead Wednesday on a Filipino island, three days after he went missing, the Foreign Ministry said.The 45-year-old, only identified by his surname Heo, was on a dive tour to Cebu along with two other South Koreans.The two, a 37-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were rescued near Camotes Island on Tuesday, according to the ministry."The body was found on the beach of Camotes Island early Wednesday morning," the ministry said.A ministry official said it was apparentl

July 8, 2015

Assembly vice speaker meets China's No. 3 leader

A vice speaker of South Korea's National Assembly, Jeong Kab-yoon, met with China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang during his visit aimed at cementing bilateral relations, officials said Wednesday. Jeong met Zhang, who ranks third in China's ruling Communist Party hierarchy, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, said in a statement posted on its website. During the meeting, Jeong and Zhang discussed ways to improve l

July 8, 2015

China raps Japan's 'word game' on history of force labor

China denounced Japan on Tuesday for playing a "word game" with its history of forced labor after Japan's foreign minister sought to water down the acknowledgement of its forced labor practices. Japan won the U.N. cultural body's approval on Sunday to have some of its early industrial sites be granted UNESCO's World Heritage status. The approval came after South Korea lifted its opposition against the bid by Japan, which acknowledged at the Sunday meeting that many Korean and other people "were

July 7, 2015

Park pleased over UNESCO recognition

President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that she is pleased over the U.N. cultural agency's recent decision to designate several of South Korea's historic sites as world heritage sites.Her comment at a Cabinet meeting came three days after UNESCO added eight historic sites of South Korea's ancient Kingdom of Baekje to its world cultural heritage list.The newly registered sites include Gongsan-Seong Fortress of the Baekje Dynasty (18 B.C.-660 A.D.), located in what is now the city of Gongju, 160 kil

July 7, 2015

U.S. to keep pressure on S. Korea to improve ties with Japan: source

The United States will put more pressure on South Korea to improve ties with Japan amid budding signs of a thaw in their relations, a U.S. congressional source said Tuesday.The U.S. has sought to strengthen trilateral ties with its two Asian allies in part to keep a rising China in check. It has often urged the two countries to put their shared history behind and look toward the future, drawing angry reactions among South Koreans who view the U.S. as siding with Japan.Relations between South Kor

July 7, 2015

S. Korea, Japan stand apart over world heritage deal

What was billed as a landmark diplomatic victory for both South Korea and Japan has turned out to be a reminder of the wide gap between the neighbors over their perceptions of shared history.On Saturday, two dozen old industrial facilities were given UNESCO-designated world heritage status after Japan accepted South Korea's demand to acknowledge that Koreans were forced to work at seven of the sites during World War II. The South Korean government put the number of workers at around 57,000."Ther

July 7, 2015

Korean victims of bus crash in China repatriated

The bodies of 10 South Korean officials killed in a bus crash in the northeastern Chinese city of Jian last week arrived here Monday.They arrived at Incheon International Airport along with 37 bereaved family members and 10 government officials who responded to the mishap in China. The bodies will then be transferred to hospitals in the regions of the local governments they belonged to, a government official said.The bus carrying 26 South Korean public servants and two Chinese people plunged off

July 6, 2015

No more legal responsibility for wartime forced labor: Japan

Japan has reaffirmed that it has no legal responsibility left for the wartime forced labor of Koreans despite its acknowledgment of such history at UNESCO, media here said Monday.Having two dozen old industrial locales listed as world heritages, Japan openly said, "There was a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites."It avoided the more straightforward expression of "forced labor" in the st

July 6, 2015

S. Korea, Australia hold working-level defense talks

South Korea and Australia held working-level defense talks Friday to discuss the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region as well as ways to beef up bilateral cooperation in the defense segment, the Defense Ministry said.   In the 16th round of the South Korea-Australia defense policy working-level meeting held earlier in the day, Director-General of International Policy Yoon Soon-ku and his Australian counterpart Scott Dewar discussed current regional security issues as well as how to enha

July 3, 2015

S. Korea, Japan face UNESCO verdict amid uncertainties

With the final call just a day away, uncertainties persist over how South Korea and Japan will settle their dispute over Tokyo's bid to turn a set of industrial facilities linked to wartime Korean slave labor into world heritage sites, officials said Friday.  Last month, the two sides appeared to have reached an agreement on the issue after Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida met in Tokyo on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilater

July 3, 2015

U.S. official due in Seoul over missile defense

A senior U.S. official will visit South Korea next week for talks on missile defense and other security issues, the State Department announced Thursday.Frank A. Rose, assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance, plans to arrive here Thursday for a two-day stay.It's part of his regional trip that will also take him to China, Japan and Vietnam.He will be engaged in "meetings and external events on space security, missile defense, arms control, and other bilateral and multilat

July 3, 2015

China says 'no information' on reported invite of Kim Jong-un

China said Thursday that it had "no information" on a media report that Beijing has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to an event in September marking the end of World War II.  Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying gave the response, when asked about the report by the Wall Street Journal that Kim has been invited to the Sept. 3 military parade to be hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.   "I have no information on that," Hua said, without elaborating further.   China is sched

July 2, 2015