Carter: U.S. not ready to discuss THAAD deployment in S. Korea

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Friday his country is not ready to begin discussions on the possible deployment of its advanced missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula."THAAD was not on the agenda today ... This is the program that is in production in the U.S.," Carter told a joint press conference here with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo.Citing a series of steps to be taken before the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery, Carter said, "We are

April 10, 2015

Japan asks Seoul for defense chiefs' talks in May

Japan has asked South Korea to hold defense ministers' talks next month amid soured bilateral ties over historical and territorial issues, defense ministry officials here said Friday.Japan "made the request to our side to hold the ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the planned Shangri-La Dialogue," a Seoul official said, requesting anonymity, citing the annual regional defense ministers' talks slated for next month in Singapore."We are reviewing that carefully," the official said, adding no

April 10, 2015

China could take lessons from S. Korea on anti-graft campaign

China could take lessons from South Korea on its widening anti-graft campaign, South Korea's first female Supreme Court justice told China's state-run media on Thursday.  Kim Young-ran, the former justice who recently became a household name in South Korea for proposing an anti-corruption bill in 2011 as the head of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, made the comments in an interview with China's state-run Global Times newspaper.   The bill proposed by Kim became law earlier this y

April 9, 2015

6 more S. Koreans evacuated from Yemen

Six more South Korean nationals were evacuated from Yemen aboard a warship Thursday amid political unrest in the Middle Eastern nation, Seoul's foreign ministry said.  The South Koreans left the Yemeni island of Socotra aboard the South Korean warship Wang Geon around 9:45 a.m. (local time) and are expected to arrive in Oman Friday.  "It's a relief our people on Socotra were safely evacuated, and we will continue to put in our best efforts to fulfill our task of safeguarding our people in Yemen,

April 9, 2015

U.N. development forum kicks off in S. Korea

Leaders of U.N. development organizations gathered in South Korea on Thursday as the world body seeks to establish a new set of development goals for the next 15 years.  Representatives from 11 U.N. agencies, including the chiefs of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, were among the more than 200 attendees at a high-level symposium of the 2015 U.N. Development Cooperation Forum in Songdo, west of Seoul.  South Korean

April 9, 2015

Abe's U.S. trip important chance to address historical tensions: S. Korean official

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's upcoming trip to the United States, including his congressional speech, is an important chance for him to address historical tensions with neighboring countries, a senior South Korean official said Wednesday.  Abe is scheduled to make a weeklong trip to the U.S. later this month. The trip has drawn keen attention as Abe has been invited to address a joint session of Congress, an honor that would make him the first-ever Japanese prime minister to do so.  "I ho

April 9, 2015

Swaziland needs reopening of Korean embassy

Swaziland hopes South Korea will reopen its embassy in the southern African country to better strengthen cooperation between the two countries, the lower house speaker of the African country said Wednesday."We do need the Korean embassy to reopen in our country ... I believe it will be easy for us to cooperate, to be closer to each other and to talk through the embassy," Themba Msibi, the House of Assembly Speaker, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.The South Korean embassy in Pretoria

April 8, 2015

White House computer system hacked by Russians

A top aide to President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the White House’s classified computer systems are secure while acknowledging vulnerabilities in its unclassified system.Obama adviser Ben Rhodes made the remarks in response to a CNN report that Russian hackers got access to sensitive White House information such as the president’s private schedule.The White House acknowledged in October that it had detected suspicious activity on its unclassified network while assessing possible cyberthreat

April 8, 2015

S. Korea, China, Japan seeks 3-way volcano research

Researchers from three Northeast Asian neighbors Wednesday agreed to jointly research volcanic activity on the Korean Peninsula's highest peak and other geological issues.  Three state-funded institutes -- the Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, the China Geological Survey and the Japan Geological Survey -- signed the agreement in Beijing earlier in the day when they held their first joint meeting.   Although the agreement did not specify Mt. Baekdu by name as an area of cooper

April 8, 2015

U.S. calls Japan's wartime sexual slavery 'terrible'

Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of women was a "terrible, egregious violation of human rights," the U.S. State Department said Tuesday, urging Tokyo to deal with the issue in a way that strengthens relations with its neighbors.  "As the United States has stated many times, the trafficking of women for sexual purposes by the Japanese military during World War II was a terrible, egregious violation of human rights," a State Department representative told Yonhap News Agency.  "The United States

April 8, 2015

Senior U.S. official calls THAAD 'critical' in defending against N.K. threats

The U.S. THAAD missile defense system is a "critical capability" in defending against North Korea's Nodong and extended-range Scud ballistic missiles, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.  Frank Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, made the remark to reporters, though he said the U.S. has neither made any decision nor begun negotiations with Seoul on whether to deploy a THAAD battery to the South.  "U.S. missile defenses in the Asia-Pacifi

April 8, 2015

China expresses concern over Japan's history textbooks

China expressed grave concern Tuesday over Japan's newly-approved textbooks that stepped up Tokyo's claim over the East China Sea islands at the center of a territorial dispute between the sides.  "We are gravely concerned about what is happening in Japan," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters during a regular press briefing, when asked about the new Japanese history textbooks.  "History is history. It cannot and should not be allowed to be changed willfully," Hua sai

April 7, 2015

3 S. Koreans move from Yemen to Oman

Three South Korean nationals have temporarily sheltered in Oman, after leaving strife-torn Yemen at the request of their home country, the government said Tuesday.  They recently escaped Al Mukalla, a Yemeni port currently controlled by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, by boat, the foreign ministry said in a press release.  The three, involved in fisheries, are now staying at a shipyard in Oman, it said.  "(The government) is strongly advising them not to return to Yemen until the situations i

April 7, 2015

S. Korean worker found dead in China

A 30-year-old South Korean worker has been found dead in a stream at the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou and Chinese police were investigating the cause of death, according to officials at the South Korean Consulate in Shanghai on Monday.The body of the South Korean national, who is only identified by the surname Koh and worked for a South Korean firm in Suzhou, was found last Friday in the stream near his home.Family members of Koh asked Chinese police to conduct an autopsy as there are signs of

April 6, 2015

China rejects another imports of N. Korean anthracite coal: report

BEIJING--China has returned a shipment of anthracite coal to North Korea because it failed to meet standards for mercury emissions, according to a local report on Saturday.This appears to be the second rejection by China of the North Korean mineral this year.The shipment arrived at the Longkou port of China's northern coastal province of Shandong late last month, but was returned as its quality did not satisfy China's environmental regulations, iQiru.com, a local Shandong Internet news site, rep

April 4, 2015

Iran deal leaves major questions unresolved

WASHINGTON (AP)--The framework nuclear deal sealed by world powers and Iran leaves major questions: Could Iran cheat? Possibly. Would the U.S or anyone else be able to respond in time? In theory, yes. Are they prepared to use military force? Questionable.Would a final deal settle global fears about Iran's intentions? Almost surely, no.But the surprisingly detailed fact sheet released by the United States after Thursday's diplomatic breakthrough in Switzerland provides President Barack Obama sign

April 4, 2015

China says Iran deal positive for U.S.-Sino relations

BEIJING--The framework nuclear deal reached by Iran and world powers is also positive for bilateral relations between the United States and China, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a telephone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Wang told Kerry that the agreement with Iran was sealed because of joint efforts by all parties that seized the "historic opportunity." Also, he said the deal "adds positive energy to Sino-U.S. relations," according to a statement posted by China's forei

April 4, 2015

S. Korea to build electronic voting system in Kenya

South Korea's election watchdog will build an electronic voting system in Kenya to help the African country establish a sustainable democracy, the watchdog said Friday.  The South Korea-led Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenya to redesign the country's electronic voting system, train professionals and voters in the system's operation, and help improve the country's election laws, according to the National Election Commission.  "The agreemen

April 3, 2015

Iran deal unlikely to rekindle U.S. interest in N.K. nuclear

A tentative deal that six world powers have reached with Iran to curb Tehran's nuclear program is unlikely to rekindle U.S interest in resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff, American experts said Thursday.  The Iran deal, announced in Lausanne, Switzerland, calls for limiting Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the U.S. and others lifting sanctions that have stifled the Middle Eastern nation's economy. Negotiators plan to put the tentative deal in a final agreement by June 30.  Thursday

April 3, 2015

Four Koreans dead, one man injured in bus accident in Nepal

Four South Koreans died and one was seriously injured on Monday as a bus carrying them collided with another bus in Nepal, Seoul's foreign ministry said.   The accident occurred as a bus carrying more than 15 people collided with the oncoming bus while on the move to Kathmandu from Pokhara, about 200 kilometers west of the capital, according to the ministry.Two Korean men in their 60s and another two women in their 50s were found dead and another Korean man in his 60s was in critical condition,

March 30, 2015