South Korea’s decision on Tuesday to pick a European firm for its high-profile project to procure four aerial refueling tankers over a U.S. one has underscored that pragmatism now overrides “alliance factors,” analysts said Wednesday.Seoul picked Airbus’ A330 MRTT for its 1.49 trillion won ($1.34 billion) project to introduce four tankers from 2018-2019, marking the first time for Korea to purchase European military aircraft in more than two decades. Boeing’s KC-46 and Israel Aerospace Industrie

National July 1, 2015

Pyongyang and Moscow appear to be stepping up cooperation with each other amid their international isolation, as a Russian firm is reportedly poised to build wind farms over the next two years to supply electricity to impoverished North Korea.Wind Power Monthly, a British magazine, reported Monday that RAO Energy System of East, the largest supplier of electricity and heating in the Russia’s Far East region, plans to build four wind farms, which total 40 megawatts, on both sides of the Russian-N

North Korea June 30, 2015

The ongoing session of the World Heritage Committee is drawing keen attention here, as it will determine whether to put Japan’s controversial Meji-era industrial sites, linked to wartime slave labor, on its heritage list later this week.The session opened in Bonn, Germany, Sunday amid talks between Seoul and Tokyo over the latter’s bid to put 23 sites of “Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” on the World Heritage Sites List. The WHC is expected to make its decision over the listing of the sites

Foreign Affairs June 29, 2015

North Korea ratcheted up its provocative rhetoric against South Korea and the U.S. over the weekend, warning of “ruthless punishments” for their role in establishing a U.N. field office in central Seoul to monitor its human rights situation.Mobilizing all state media outlets, the communist state berated Seoul and Washington for “bringing inter-Korean ties to the brink of a collapse,” and attempting to further isolate it and undermine its national dignity.“The inter-Korean relationship has been b

North Korea June 28, 2015

South Korea is expected to pick the winner of its 1.4 trillion won ($1.25 billion) project to procure four in-flight refueling tankers at a session of the National Defense Acquisition Program Committee on Tuesday, a procurement official said Sunday.“Included in the agenda for Tuesday’s session is the issue of determining the winner for the project,” an official at Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said on condition of anonymity. “Unless anything else comes in at the last minute,

Defense June 28, 2015

North Korea's parliamentary speaker returned home Friday from a trip to Russia to deepen bilateral ties, the North's media said. Choe Thae-bok, chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's rubber-stamp parliament, arrived in Pyongyang earlier in the day after wrapping up his five-day trip to Moscow, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. The KCNA did not provide details.During his stay, Choe held talks with Sergey Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliam

North Korea June 26, 2015

A group of international personalities calling for an end to nuclear testing visited the inter-Korean border Friday to face the only country that has tested nuclear weapons this century -- North Korea.The Group of Eminent Persons for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was launched in 2013 to promote the treaty's entry into force. Some its members, including Hans Blix, former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Angela Kane, former U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affai

Defense June 26, 2015

President Park Geun-hye on Friday pledged to transform Jeju into one of the world's best islands in terms of smart-tourism and energy self-sufficiency, during her visit to a new innovation center there.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning joined forces with Daum Kakao Corp., the operator of the country's most popular messaging app, KakaoTalk, and the Internet portal Daum, to open the 1,924-square-meter Jeju Creative Economy Innovation Center on the southern resort island of Jeju. The

Politics June 26, 2015

Experts call on both Koreas to strive harder to restore trust and cooperationSixty-five years after the outbreak of the Korean War, the two Koreas face the daunting task that the armed conflict has left behind -- replacing the current “armistice regime” with a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.In the 1990s and 2000s, Seoul and Pyongyang moved to lay the groundwork for the peace system, but their efforts failed due to the communist state’s nuclear ambitions, and the two sides’ politi

Defense June 24, 2015

North Korea has sentenced two South Korean nationals to life imprisonment on charges of espionage, its state media reported Tuesday, coinciding with the day the U.N. opened a field office in Seoul to monitor and study the repressive state’s human rights situation.　The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that the North’s Supreme Court meted out life sentences to Kim Kuk-gi and Choi Chun-gil, who it said were arrested after spying on the regime “under the direction of the U.S. and Sou

North Korea June 23, 2015

South Korea on Thursday unveiled four different targets for an emissions reduction by 2030, which critics say would backtrack from its previous commitments. The Ministry of Environment said it would choose one from among the four options before the country submits it to the United Nations later this month. National goals will be evaluated for a new global climate change pact to be adopted at a U.N. conference in Paris in December. Korea‘s new proposals call for a reduction by 14.7 percent, 19.2

June 11, 2015

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (Yonhap) -- With strong efforts on both ends, South Korea defeated the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 3-0 on Thursday in its final football friendly before the start of the World Cup qualifiers.Former World Cup veteran Yeom Ki-hun, international rookie Lee Yong-jae and rising striker Lee Jeong-hyeop scored a goal apiece at Shah Alam Stadium in Shah Alam, Malaysia, as the 58th-ranked South Korea edged past the 73rd-ranked UAE for the 12th time in 19 meetings. South Korea will trav

Soccer June 11, 2015