South Korea and the United States officially kicked off negotiations Thursday to finalize the terms of deploying the advanced American missile defense system THAAD in South Korea, the foreign ministry said. "With regard to the provision of land (for the deployment), a request has been filed to open negotiations between the Ministry of National Defense and the US Forces Korea in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said in a press briefing. "T

March 2, 2017

South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed Monday to work closely together in responding to the recent killing of the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, an official said.Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea's chief envoy on North Korea issues, reached the agreement when he held talks in Washington with his US and Japanese counterparts, Joseph Yun and Kenji Kanasugi, amid mounting evidence that Pyongyang was behind the death of Kim Jong-nam, the leader's estranged brother.Kim Hong-kyun (

Feb. 28, 2017

The Azerbaijani Embassy in Seoul, together with Korea’s National Assembly and Korea Post, organized a conference on Feb. 14 to mark the silver jubilee of bilateral ties and the 25th anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre. The event at the National Assembly in Seoul comprised two-part exhibitions featuring photos and videos on the massacre that took place in the town of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on Feb. 25-26, 1992, as well as the last 25 years of Azerbaijan’s development and cooperat

Feb. 27, 2017

With North Korea scaling up its nuclear and missile capabilities, the United States should consider taking higher policy risks to break the security deadlock and tamp down the communist regime’s proliferating threat, according to a former director at the White House’s National Security Council.Victor Cha, speaking at a forum in Seoul on Feb. 17, said the new policy toward North Korea “should entail a higher level of risk acceptance,” as minimizing risk had restricted policy options and allowed P

Feb. 27, 2017

To stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats from fueling a regional arms race, South Korea and its regional security partners should jointly address the issue and the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, a former South Korean foreign minister has said. Song Min-soon, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul and a foreign minister from 2006-8, said at a forum in Seoul on Feb. 15 that “the security of the world in a nuclear age cannot be achieved

Feb. 27, 2017

China has blocked access to newly updated clips of South Korean music and dramas on the country's online video sharing platforms, sources said Sunday, in an apparent bid to retaliate against Seoul's move to deploy an advanced US missile defense system. The move followed China's decision to prevent South Korean pop stars from appearing on Chinese entertainment programs since October as South Korea decided in July last year to station the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system on its soil.(Lov

Feb. 26, 2017

South Korea's foreign ministry has sent an official letter to local municipalities in the southeastern city of Busan, asking for cooperation in resolving diplomatic rifts with Japan over a statue symbolizing the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, officials said Thursday. In December, civic groups installed the girl statue in front of the Japanese consulate in the nation's second largest city. Japan demanded an immediate removal and recalled its ambassador to South Korea in protest last m

Feb. 23, 2017

A US senator called Wednesday for adding North Korea back to the State Department list of states sponsoring terrorism, saying the regime's recent assassination of its leader's half brother shows its "brutality."Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), a leading voice in Congress for greater pressure on Pyongyang, made the comments to Yonhap News Agency after Malaysian police identified two additional North Koreans, including a diplomat, as suspects in the killing of Kim Jong-nam, the leader's estranged brother

Feb. 23, 2017

A South Korean ship with 24 crew members and some 5,000 cars was released Tuesday after being seized by the Libyan military last week, Seoul‘s foreign ministry said.The ministry said that the ship, Morning Compass, which was travelling to reach its final destination of Germany, was captured by the Libyan Navy some 1,400 kilometers east of Misurata in the North African state’s northwest region at 5 p.m. on Saturday. This photo is captured from a Libyan news outlet site by Yonhap News Agency.The s

Feb. 21, 2017

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se has voiced South Korea's reservations about any US agreement with North Korea that would reward Pyongyang for a nuclear freeze, sources said Tuesday, referring to the policymaker's recent talks with American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.Instead, any deal with Pyongyang should aim to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" manner, the sources quoted Yun as telling Tillerson during their talks in Bonn, Germany o

Feb. 21, 2017

The ASEAN-Korea Center in Seoul held its ninth annual council meeting Thursday, hashing out issues to strengthen bilateral ties while commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. As this is the ASEAN-Korea Cultural Exchange year, events are scheduled on both sides, particularly in May and June. The discussion involving 11 high-level representatives from ASEAN and Korea focused on bolstering two-way cultural ties, according to the center. At the reception at L

Feb. 20, 2017

Andrew Parmley, the lord mayor of the City of London, is visiting Korea this week to strengthen bilateral commercial ties and promote Britain as the leading business hub of Europe. His visit on Tuesday and Wednesday is his second in the last six months, as the UK government strives to shore up economic partnerships around the world ahead of the country’s anticipated exit from the European Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May has stated that she intends to trigger the process by invoking Art

Feb. 20, 2017

In a globalized world, the mantle of international cooperation falls not only in the hands of national government, but legitimately on local government, according to the new president of the Korean Association for Local Government Studies.Professor Yun Eun-gee of Dong-A University in Busan, who teaches public administration, will become the 19th president of the academic organization in March for one year.“As political, administrative and fiscal authorities are transferred downward across advanc

Feb. 20, 2017

Marking the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation, there will be a series of cultural and educational events in Korea this year, according to the Canadian Embassy in Seoul.The Canadian Confederation refers to the process by which the former British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were united into one Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. The new federal state was then composed of the four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Since the confederation,

Feb. 20, 2017

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed Thursday to put together joint strategies to deal with North Korea based on an understanding that the communist nation has reached the final stage of nuclear armament, officials said.The two top diplomats reached the agreement when they held one-on-one talks in the German city of Bonn on the sidelines of the Group of 20 foreign ministers' gathering, officials said. It was the first foreign ministers' meetin

Feb. 17, 2017

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile test and warned of "further significant measures" against Pyongyang. "The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the most recent ballistic missile launches conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 11 February 2017 and 19 October 2016," the council said in a press statement. (Yonhap)"These launches are in grave violation of the Democratic People's Republic of Kor

Feb. 14, 2017

US President Donald Trump said Monday he will deal with North Korea "very strongly," calling the communist regime a "big, big problem" after Pyongyang carried out the latest ballistic missile launch."Obviously North Korea is a big, big problem and we will deal with that very strongly," Trump said during a joint news conference at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in response to a question about the most important national security matters facing him. (Yonhap)Trump did n

Feb. 14, 2017