Japan approved its right to fight in overseas wars on Tuesday, overturning its strictly defensive postwar security policy and defying public protests and international concerns over its unabated revisionist push. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an impromptu cabinet meeting to lift the longstanding ban on exercising collective self-defense by reinterpreting its Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9, which barred Tokyo from waging war and possessing war-related materials. With the decision, J

Foreign Affairs July 1, 2014

Japan is poised to set its plan in motion to allow its military to help defend other countries, which will herald a major shift in the country’s defense-oriented postwar security policy amid rising concerns over its creeping assertiveness in the region. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to convene a cabinet meeting Tuesday to approve Tokyo’s right to exercise collective self-defense by reinterpreting the war-renouncing Article 9 of its Constitution. The change will allow Japan’s Self-Defense

Foreign Affairs June 30, 2014

GAESEONG, North Korea ― The two Koreas on Thursday held their first talks in six months over a joint factory park in the North amid their strained relations over concerns about Pyongyang’s nuclear test and stringent criticism against Seoul and Washington. The meeting of a joint committee tasked with the operation of the Gaeseong industrial complex took place in the North Korean border city. It was led by Lee Kang-woo, cochair of the panel and director general for inter-Korean cooperation distric

North Korea June 26, 2014

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan ― Full of vigor yet penniless, Faisal Safi appeared doomed to live a life without a future when he joined a Korean vocational training center in his home province of Parwan in 2010 at age 20. One year of electrician training there “completely changed” his life, he said, enabling him to not only support his family but also open up opportunities. Now at 24, the soft-spoken man nurtures pupils at the academy located in the largest U.S. military base Afghanistan. “I real

Foreign Affairs June 24, 2014

This is the ninth installment in a series of interviews with chiefs of United Nations offices in Korea. ― Ed.The U.N. Development Program is looking to deepen its partnership with Korea to help others in need by harnessing the country’s green technologies and know-how in tackling corruption, chief of its Seoul office said. As the Seoul Policy Center is crafting its new three-year work plan, the two areas have emerged as potential catalysts for development in which the UNDP and Korea can join for

Foreign Affairs June 22, 2014

Relations between Korea and Japan are plunging further after the Shinzo Abe administration on Friday unveiled a report undercutting its watershed 1993 apology for its mobilization of Korean women to frontline brothels in World War II. A five-member panel consisting of legal, women’s rights and media experts has been “reexamining the background” of the Kono Statement since late February, headed by former Prosecutor-General Keiichi Tadaki.Seoul’s Foreign Ministry expressed “deep regret” that Tokyo

Foreign Affairs June 20, 2014

The South Korean Navy carried out a firing exercise off the country’s east coast Friday to strengthen its capability against a possible invasion by North Korean submarines, officers here said.Flatly rejecting Japan’s call a day earlier to cancel the drill, the Navy held the one-day exercise in the East Sea, some 50 kilometers away from the port of Jukbyeon, North Gyeongsang Province, as scheduled.On Wednesday, Tokyo urged Seoul to cancel the exercise, claiming that the venue includes part of its

Defense June 20, 2014

South Korea saw its ranking plunge on a famed global peace index this year on the back of the North’s persistent military threats that heightened cross-border tension, a report said Thursday. The index by Institute for Economics and Peace, a non-profit think tank headquartered in Sydney, put South Korea in 52nd place among 162 countries, down six notches from last year. The North moved up two spots to rank 153rd.On a 1-5 scale, where a lower score means greater peace, South and North Korea fetch

North Korea June 19, 2014

Seoul should take on a greater role in addressing North Korea’s unbridled violations of human rights to help pile pressure on the communist regime and better prepare for future unification, experts said Tuesday. Dozens of policymakers and scholars in law and international politics gathered in Seoul to discuss ways to address rampant rights breaches in the reclusive country at home and on the world stage. The one-day seminar was hosted by the Center for International Law at the state-run Korea Na

North Korea June 18, 2014

Relations between Korea and Japan appear to be hanging in the balance as Tokyo is gearing up to unveil this week the results of a review of its landmark 1993 apology for its sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II. In the document in the name of then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, Japan acknowledged and apologized for its Imperial Army’s involvement in setting up “comfort facilities” and forcing women to serve in frontline brothels. Up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, are be

Foreign Affairs June 16, 2014