Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will make a two-day visit to Seoul next week to discuss bilateral relations and other pending issues, including North Korea, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The top Chinese diplomat will arrive here on Sept. 14 and hold talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on Sept. 15. He is also likely to pay a courtesy call to President Moon Jae-in but both the ministry and Cheong Wa Dae said nothing has been confirmed yet.

Foreign Affairs Sept. 7, 2021

South Korea has received a fresh invitation from the world’s most exclusive intelligence-sharing alliance, the so-called Five Eyes, but experts warn there is no such thing as a free lunch in diplomacy. Last week, the US House of Representatives submitted a draft bill to the National Defense Authorization for the 2022 fiscal year, asking the US administration to consider expanding the Five Eyes program that currently consists of five English-speaking democracies: the US, UK, Canada, Austr

Foreign Affairs Sept. 6, 2021

President Moon Jae-in is weighing whether to attend the UN General Assembly set to be held in New York later this month in his renewed push to resume stalled talks with North Korea, according to Cheong Wa Dae officials. “This is a significant year that marks the 30th anniversary of South and North Korea becoming UN members together,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity. “It would be very meaningful for the two Koreas to send a unified peace message on such

North Korea Sept. 2, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday rolled out his administration’s last budget plan worth 604.4 trillion won ($519 billion) that aims to cement the economic recovery, reduce deepening income disparity and prepare for post-pandemic policy initiatives. The big spending plan for 2022, up 8.3 percent from this year’s 558 trillion won, is set to be submitted to the National Assembly on Friday for approval. “At a time when the coronavirus crisis has greatly dampened the private sect

Politics Aug. 31, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Monday suggested that coronavirus vaccine booster shots will be available here soon, with health care workers and older adults the first to receive the extra shots. “Based on guidance from health authorities and experts, the government will start offering booster shots for high-risk groups like elderly people and health care workers and expand the recipients in phases,” the president said in a weekly meeting with his aides at Cheong Wa Dae. His remarks ca

Politics Aug. 30, 2021

Evacuating almost 400 Afghan allies and their families from Afghanistan was nothing short of miracle, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said Thursday, hinting that there were no more rescue missions possible with just days left before an Aug. 31 deadline for the US withdrawal. “If we had failed to mobilize buses at the last minute, only 26 people could have made it to the airport,” President Moon Jae-in’s senior secretary for public communications, Park Soo-hyun, said in a radi

Foreign Affairs Aug. 26, 2021

President Moon Jae-in and Colombian President Ivan Duque held summit talks in Seoul on Wednesday and agreed to further bolster bilateral ties that mark the 60th aniversary next year.  Duque and his wife Maria Juliana Ruiz arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for a three-day state visit, becoming the first presidential couple to visit Korea since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. For the Colombian president, it was his first trip outside Latin America amid the pandemic. The state visit was ma

Foreign Affairs Aug. 25, 2021

South Korea is considering evacuating some 400 Afghans who helped the reconstruction efforts there and are now targets for Taliban revenge. Still, the government appears cautious about welcoming refugees from Afghanistan. President Moon Jae-in’s top security adviser, Suh Hoon, said Monday that the government was reviewing all possible options to assist Korea’s “Afghan allies” -- referring to translators, medical personnel and engineers who had been hired to wor

Foreign Affairs Aug. 24, 2021

President Moon Jae-in and Colombian President Ivan Duque will hold summit talks next week in Seoul to further boost bilateral ties between the two nations, Cheong Wa Dae announced Thursday. The Colombian president will visit Seoul for three days, from Aug. 24-26. The summit talks will be held Aug. 25 and a dinner banquet will follow later in the day. The upcoming visit will be the second state visit to Seoul since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, following this week’s visit by Kazak

Foreign Affairs Aug. 19, 2021

Cheong Wa Dae is confident of reaching its vaccination target for COVID-19 as planned, despite delayed vaccine shipments from Moderna, President Moon Jae-in’s senior public communications secretary Park Soo-hyun said Wednesday. "We can reach the goal if the already secured vaccines are well controlled,” he said in a radio interview earlier in the day, referring to Moon’s Liberation Day speech on Sunday, when the president said the nation was on track to inoculating 70 pe

Social Affairs Aug. 18, 2021

President Moon Jae-in and visiting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan on Tuesday held summit talks and pledged to further expand the strategic partnership between the countries. The Kazakh president arrived in Seoul on Monday for a two-day state visit, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also a return visit for Moon’s visit to the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan in 2019. “This is the first state visit since

Foreign Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Sunday reiterated Korea was open to dialogue with Japan but no specific offers were made, signaling no immediate breakthrough in the strained relationship between the two neighbors. “Our government has always kept the door open for dialogue to jointly respond not only to our two countries’ pending issues but also threats facing the world, including COVID-19 and the climate crisis,” the president said in a speech marking the 76th anniversary of Korea&rs

Foreign Affairs Aug. 16, 2021

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will make a two-day state visit to Seoul next week, marking the first presidential visit to the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheong Wa Dae announced Thursday. Kazakhstan, the largest economy in Central Asia, is one of the key partners in the nation’s New Northern Policy, which seeks to strengthen cooperation with Central Asian countries under a vision of peace and prosperity in Eurasia. The Kazakh president is expe

Foreign Affairs Aug. 12, 2021

North Korea on Wednesday stepped up threats against Seoul and Washington, saying that it will give the allies “a serious security crisis” for hosting joint military drills. “(North Korea) will make (Seoul and Washington) feel how close they are to a tremendous security crisis,” Kim Yong-chol, head of the North’s United Front Department handling inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement. Kim, saying that the South has rejected the chance to improve inter-Korean r

North Korea Aug. 11, 2021

South Korea’s budding efforts to resume diplomacy with North Korea are once again fanning expectations for a visit to the reclusive country by Pope Francis. Since the recent reopening of the direct hotlines connecting the two Koreas, officials are reviewing a slew of ideas to expedite inter-Korean talks such as setting up a virtual conference system or holding a family reunion event during the Chuseok holidays in September. Renewed attention is also being paid to the possibilit

North Korea Aug. 10, 2021