Yoo Heung-soo appears to be a confident and seasoned politician. Though he has yet to grasp all the pending issues and diplomatic terminology, his hale, vigorous and poised figure defies concerns about him being Korea’s oldest-ever ambassador to Japan. The 76-year-old former lawmaker, provincial governor and national police chief is scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Sunday to take on what is currently one of Korea’s most challenging diplomatic posts. He received a letter of credence from President Pa

Foreign Affairs Aug. 21, 2014

Yoo Heung-soo, a former lawmaker, provincial governor and national police chief with close ties to Japan, was appointed as the new ambassador to Tokyo on Wednesday. The 76-year-old head of the Korea-Japan Friendship Association will succeed Lee Byung-kee, who is now director of the National Intelligence Service.  The announcement came as the two countries’ relations are at their lowest ebb in decades due to heated historical and territorial feuds. Skepticism has erupted in the diplomatic circles

Foreign Affairs Aug. 20, 2014

COLOMBO ― A former top U.N. expert on women’s rights urged Japan to come up with a resolution to a decades-long dispute over its wartime sex slavery, criticizing Tokyo for moving “backwards” with its historic revisionism. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women from 1994-2003, warned that the issue of the so-called comfort women would “come back to bite” Japan if it continues attempting to whitewash its imperial past and undermine earlier apologies. “Recently,

Foreign Affairs Aug. 20, 2014

Korea’s 2010 enrollment in the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee was a milestone in the history of its economic growth, epitomizing its unprecedented ascent from a war-stricken backwater to an aid donor. The country has since been scaling up its aid commitments and personnel to help the developing world fight poverty, disease, climate change and other grave challenges. Last year, it doled out more than $1.74 billion in official development assistance as the world’s 16th-largest patron.At t

Foreign Affairs Aug. 18, 2014

Following is the first in a series of articles on Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Asian women on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the foundation of The Korea Herald on Aug. 15. – Ed.On Aug. 14, 1991, a feeble yet upright old woman stepped forward for a historic news conference in Seoul. In front of a crowd of reporters and a flood of flashlights, she surprised the world by declaring that she was a sex slave for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. “Why do they (the Japane

Foreign Affairs Aug. 17, 2014

Amid persistent concerns over its fourth underground blast, North Korea should put a moratorium on nuclear testing and join a global treaty to outlaw it, the head of the agency monitoring the ban said Wednesday. Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, called for greater international pressure to stop Pyongyang from further beefing up its nuclear capabilities, saying that North Korea was the only country that has

North Korea Aug. 13, 2014

Japan is coming under increasing pressure to atone for its wartime sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women. U.N. high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay issued a statement Thursday to express “profound regret” over Tokyo’s failure to pursue a “comprehensive, impartial and lasting resolution” of the issue, saying the human rights of the so-called former comfort women “continue to be violated decades after the end of World War II.”The women face “increasing denials and degrading

Foreign Affairs Aug. 7, 2014

Three South Korean citizens were executed for drug trafficking in China on Wednesday, Seoul officials said.   Two men, surnamed Kim, 53, and Baek, 45, were arrested in the northeastern province of Jilin in April 2011. Kim was convicted of smuggling 14.8 kilograms of methamphetamine on 14 occasions from 2010-11 and selling 12.3 kilograms of the drug to Baek, who resold it to South Korean cartels. The third person, a 56-year-old identified by his surname Chang, was arrested in May 2009 for illicit

Social Affairs Aug. 6, 2014

The two Koreas are poised to engage in a diplomatic game at a security forum in Myanmar this week as Seoul seeks to bring regional players on board to press the North to part with its nuclear programs, while Pyongyang steps up its charm offensive. The ASEAN Regional Forum will bring together the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and other major powers in addition to the 10-nation Southeast Asian coalition. The region’s largest security conference is slated for Sunday in Naypyidaw. The 27 member countri

North Korea Aug. 6, 2014

Korea on Tuesday protested Japan’s renewed claim to the islets of Dokdo in its new defense white paper that added to the strain on their relations. In the annual document, Tokyo identified the windswept islets in the East Sea as its territory and said the sovereignty feud “remains unresolved.” The description has been rehashed since 2005. The paper also carries a map of Japan’s air defense identification zone, in which Dokdo is denoted by the Japanese name of Takeshima and the skies over the out

Foreign Affairs Aug. 5, 2014

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Kwon Oh-sung offered to resign Tuesday to take responsibility for the death of a soldier who died after allegedly being beaten by colleagues at their barracks.The Army chief tendered a letter of resignation to Defense Minister Han Min-koo, the ministry’s spokesman Kim Min-seok said. The defense minister has delivered Kwon’s announcement to Cheong Wa Dae, he added.“I apologize for causing the public concern over the recent incident that occurred in the Army,” Kwon was quo

Defense Aug. 5, 2014

Under mounting pressure from the public and lawmakers, the Army said Monday it would consider pressing murder charges against soldiers who bullied a junior colleague who died after suffering physical and mental abuse. The 23-year-old draftee, identified by his surname Yoon, died on April 7 after being beaten by senior soldiers while they ate together. He was found to have suffered from physical and mental abuse since being dispatched a month earlier to the Army’s 28th Division in Yeoncheon, Gyeo

Defense Aug. 4, 2014

This is the last installment in an 11-part series of interviews with chiefs of United Nations offices in Korea. ― Ed.Amid concerns over its dwindling commitment to climate initiatives, South Korea should muster the political will to follow through on its international pledges to curb emissions and the green growth initiative, the chief of the U.N. Office for Sustainable Development said.Seoul has taken credit for promoting “green growth” as a global agenda. In 2009, the country vowed a voluntari

Foreign Affairs Aug. 3, 2014

Around B.C. 300, a Chinese widow moved house three times in search of a better place to raise her son. Living beside a cemetery, the child mimicked funeral rites. Near a marketplace, he imitated merchants. Then the mother settled on a house close to a school, where the boy was influenced by literati, soon perfected the Six Arts and became a Confucian sage. Throughout history, the tale of the mother of Mencius has served as a model for devotion to education and strict parenting in neighboring Kor

Foreign Affairs Aug. 1, 2014

Stretching back two millennia, the two countries’ deeply interwoven cultural and social relations have evolved from a geohistorical, Confucianism-based bond into a mutually beneficial partnership. Though China remains a leading player in Asia’s cultural industry, region, Korea’s soft power has grown sharply in recent years thanks to the high popularity of its pop music and dramas. The influence of the world’s second-largest economy in Korea’s industry and society has prompted soaring numbers of

Foreign Affairs Aug. 1, 2014