Japan said Monday it has secured a UNESCO advisory panel’s endorsement for the listing of major wartime industrial facilities as World Heritage sites, posing a threat to Seoul’s efforts to keep the move at bay amid unabated historical spats. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS, has recommended the registration of 23 sites of “Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution,” built in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. They were credited with contributing to Japan’s rapid industri

Foreign Affairs May 5, 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s recent revocation of his anticipated visit to Russia may have resulted from Moscow’s lukewarm response to Pyongyang’s plans to purchase its air defense missile systems, a news report said Saturday. Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV cited a Russian defense expert, reporting that the North floated a proposal to purchase four sets of Russia’s S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems during a visit by Hyon Yong-chol, minister of the People’s Armed Forces, to Moscow last

North Korea May 3, 2015

Though the recent revision to an atomic energy pact with the U.S. allows South Korea’s study of pyroprocessing, the nascent technology will likely increase electricity costs while failing to reduce the stockpile of spent fuel here, a leading nuclear scientist has said. Under the amendment, Seoul secured Washington’s consent to carry out electroreduction, the first stage of pyroprocessing, which Korean experts have touted as a possible solution to deal with its mountain of used fuel rods. The tec

Foreign Affairs May 3, 2015

North Korea has executed at least 15 senior officials this year alone including a vice forestry minister and four high-flying artists as leader Kim Jong-un continues his reign of terror apparently to cement his power, according to Seoul’s National Intelligence Service on Wednesday.  N.K. leader Kim Jong-un gives a speech in Pyongyang. YonhapThe vice minister was killed after complaining about the current reforestation policy, as was the deputy chief of a national planning panel who opposed the y

North Korea April 29, 2015

Young and cheerful albeit poor, 16-year-old Lee Yong-soo was taken to a Kamikaze unit in Taiwan by a Japanese man in what appeared to be a military uniform during World War II. She did not know she would be raped, repeatedly, and face electric torture if she disobeyed. Now frail, diminutive and wheelchair-bound, the 86-year-old Korean flew to Cambridge, the U.S., to stage a silent vigil against Tokyo’s unbridled attempts to whitewash the appalling chapter of history at Harvard University, where

Foreign Affairs April 28, 2015

South Korea said Monday it would dispatch search and rescue staff and medical personnel to Nepal as relief assistance pours into the country, following a massive earthquake that has left thousands dead and others injured. An advance team of 10 members from the 119 rescue squad and four government officials were scheduled to fly to the South Asian nation late Monday evening to inspect the situation and help the ongoing rescue efforts for 10 days, alongside a Foreign Ministry official who departed

Foreign Affairs April 27, 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will travel to Moscow next month to take part a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Russia’s ambassador to Seoul said Thursday. Speculation has been mounting since Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he had received “positive” signs that Kim Jong-un would join in commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, which would be the young ruler’s maiden overseas trip since taking power in December 2012. Dozens of heads of states were in

Foreign Affairs April 23, 2015

Tension is escalating between Seoul and Tokyo as Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe indicated he will not repeat past apologies for wartime atrocities in an upcoming statement marking the end of World War II, while sending an offering to a controversial war shrine. Seoul on Tuesday strongly condemned the ritual donations by Abe and a series of other cabinet ministers and top politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine to commemorate a spring festival. Since his visit to the shrine in December 2013, which enrage

Foreign Affairs April 21, 2015

With time running out for the aging sex slavery victims, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should sincerely atone for the so-called comfort women during World War II on the occasion of his scheduled high-profile speeches, a renowned Japanese scholar said. Haruki Wada, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, urged the ultraconservative premier to clearly display his commitment to the Japanese government’s watershed apologies for the atrocities ― the Kono Statement in 1993 and the Murayama

Foreign Affairs April 19, 2015