President Park Geun-hye is leaving for Washington on Wednesday to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, where she will also hold a series of talks with leaders of the U.S., China and Japan to coordinate their steps on North Korea in the wake of its new nuclear and missile tests. Park will meet separately with U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday. Her schedule also includes a separate trilateral sess

North Korea March 29, 2016

President Park Geun-hye on Monday called for airtight defense readiness and “dominant” deterrence against North Korea as the communist neighbor ramped up its threats. In a message to the military, she cheered the soldiers for having maintained “airtight” readiness since Pyongyang’s new nuclear and missile tests early this year, which would make the North “afraid.” “We’re under a graver security situation than ever, but the crisis can become a fresh opportunity depending on how we respond. Now we

North Korea March 28, 2016

Amid a bold public administration and economic push, Serbia is ready to boost cooperation with Korea on e-government, trade and other areas that could be a catalyst to its ongoing recovery and bid to join the European Union, the country’s deputy prime minister told The Korea Herald. While Europe offers a broader pathway to growth, the Korean model involving government consolidation and a market-driven economy caters to Belgrade’s ongoing drive to streamline public administration and pare debt, K

Foreign Affairs March 28, 2016

In January, I dashed over to the Danish National Hospital (Rigshospitalet) as soon as I heard that its Neuroscience Center had an old table imbued with “Korean spirit.” When I entered a conference room at the hospital, in the middle of it was a large, varnished wooden board table blazing with yellowish-brown lays as if it was ready to unveil over the past 65 years.Dr. Johannes Jakobsen, director of the center, told me a special story behind the table. After the Korean War broke out in 1950, the

Foreign Affairs March 27, 2016

(Foreign Ministry)BUSAN -- The Foreign Ministry broke ground Wednesday for an organization to promote the cultures of Southeast Asian countries as part of efforts to broaden sociocultural exchanges. The ASEAN Culture House will be sheltered in a four-story building at a 2,640-square-meter area in Busan’s vibrant Haeundae area, with construction work scheduled to be completed around June 2017. Some 400 ministry and city officials as well as ambassadors and diplomats from the 10-nation bloc, along

Foreign Affairs March 23, 2016

As a majority of North Korean overseas workers are in China and Russia, companies employing them in the two countries may be subject to Washington’s new sanctions, a top U.S. official in charge of sanctions policy indicated Monday. “The new Executive Order provides very broad authority to deal with the exportation of labor,” said Daniel Fried, coordinator for sanctions policy at the U.S. State Department. “It doesn’t mandate anything in particular, but the authorities are there if needed.” He wa

North Korea March 21, 2016

 Senior officials of Korea and Japan are scheduled to hold their first bilateral meeting Tuesday to discuss follow-up steps since December’s agreement on resolving the “comfort women” issue, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Monday. Chung Byung-won, the new director general for Northeast Asian affairs at the Foreign Ministry here, will travel to Tokyo for talks with Kimihiro Ishikane, director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s Foreign Ministry.Protesters stage a sit-in demonstration

Foreign Affairs March 21, 2016

The Japanese government on Friday approved a set of updated high school textbooks containing strengthened claims to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, casting a fresh cloud over Seoul’s efforts to put bilateral ties back on track. Seoul lodged a protest, calling the long-festering assertion “unjust” and urging Tokyo to correct its erroneous historical view and provide fact-based education. Hideo Suzuki, a minister at the Japanese Embassy, was called in by Chung Byung-won, director general for

Foreign Affairs March 18, 2016

North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Friday, Seoul’s military officials said, marking another round of provocations amid the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills and their accelerating sanctions push. One medium-range missile, presumed to be a Rodong, took off at around 5:55 a.m. from the western county of Sukchon and flew some 800 kilometers before hitting the waters within Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said. But another

North Korea March 18, 2016

The Japanese government on Friday approved a set of updated high school textbooks containing strengthened claims to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, casting a fresh cloud over Seoul’s efforts to put bilateral ties back on track. Seoul lodged a protest, calling the long-festering assertion “unjust” and urging Tokyo to correct its erroneous historical view and provide fact-based education. Hideo Suzuki, a minister at the Japanese Embassy, was called in by Chung Byung-won, director general for

Foreign Affairs March 18, 2016

The U.N. Security Council would “almost automatically” adopt an even stricter resolution if Pyongyang carries out an additional provocation through a nuclear or missile test, South Korea’s top envoy to the U.N. warned Thursday. Ambassador Oh Joon (Yonhap)Ambassador Oh Joon also touted the newly introduced U.S. standalone sanctions on the communist state, which penalizes “any person,” including those of third-country nationalities, for engaging in the state’s nuclear, missile and other banned act

North Korea March 17, 2016