WARSAW ― The Organization for Cooperation between Railways will crank up efforts to ratify a new convention, with a special working group, which could pave the way for South Korea’s full membership and boost the pangovernmental rail industry, the agency’s chief said Wednesday.Despite Pyongyang’s unfaltering opposition to Seoul’s joining, Tadeusz Szozda gave an upbeat outlook as the Warsaw-headquartered body seeks to scrap the longstanding consensus-based decision-making procedure in favor of one

Foreign Affairs July 30, 2015

North Korea appears to be nearing completion of a project to extend a launch pad at the missile site on its west coast, a military source said Wednesday, boosting the possibility for another rocket liftoff later this year.  In this Dec. 12, 2012 file photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, the Unha-3 rocket lifts off from the launch pad in North Korea. (AP-Yonhap News)A new gantry topping 60 meters was spotted at the Dongchang-ri station, where the communist state successfully

North Korea July 22, 2015

North Korea’s perceived ambition to develop a submarine-launched ballistic missile is “destabilizing” the region, a top U.S. Navy official said Monday, warning its lack of transparency would stoke uncertainties and opaque intent may make other countries’ objectives “dangerous.” Amid unabated tension in the South China Sea, Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, also reiterated Washington’s opposition to Beijing’s unilateral, coercive approach, while downplaying his surveillance f

Defense July 20, 2015

South Korea launched a special express railway linking Asia and Europe on Tuesday, seeking to crank up political, economic and cultural ties with the region and rally the global community behind its commitment to a peaceful reunification with North Korea. More than 200 South Koreans gathered at Seoul Station before setting out on a 20-day, 14,400-kilometer journey on the “Eurasia Express,” displaying their resolve and sharing their mission statement. They then flew to Vladivostok, the train’s st

Foreign Affairs July 14, 2015

More than 250 South Koreans are poised to embark Tuesday on a 20-day journey across Asia and into Europe on a pair of special express trains as part of Seoul’s initiative for greater business and sociocultural cooperation between the two continents. Under the slogan “One Dream, One Eurasia,” high-profile figures from the political, business, academic and cultural circles as well as dozens of special guests and ordinary citizens will gather in Seoul before flying to Vladivostok and Beijing for tw

Foreign Affairs July 13, 2015

South Korea and the U.S. have launched a joint panel to investigate the shipment of a possibly live anthrax sample to an American military base here, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday, more than a month after the incident was revealed and after weeks of protests by activists here.In late May, 22 U.S. servicemen were identified as having possibly come into contact with the lethal bacteria “inadvertently” sent to Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province by a military laboratory in Utah. Though the U.

Foreign Affairs July 12, 2015

A group of 10 armed North Korean troops violated the inter-Korean border on Saturday apparently to inspect signposts around the area, and retreated after their Southern counterparts fired warning shots, the South Korean military said Sunday.  North Korean soldiers leave after paying their respects to their late leader Kim Il-sung to mark the 21st anniversary of his death at Mansu Hill where a bronze statue of him and his son, Kim Jong-il stands, Wednesday, July 8. (AP-Yonhap)The North Korean sol

North Korea July 12, 2015

Every May, flocks of spot-billed ducks, black-crowned night herons and other migratory birds head to a pair of uninhabited islands at the heart of Seoul, joining 50 other species that use them as breeding grounds. Though no one lives there now, the Bamseom islets were home to more than 440 Seoulites until the city government relocated them and demolished the homes in 1968 as part of its project to widen the waterways in the Hangang River and develop nearby Yeouido. The wetlands’ pristine charm,

Social Affairs July 10, 2015

President Park Geun-hye on Friday stressed the need to provide medical assistance to North Korea to tackle infectious illnesses such as tuberculosis and rubella and map out a longer term disease management plan in cooperation with other neighbors. President Park Geun-hye meets with civilian members of the presidential committee on unification preparations at Cheong Wa Dae, Friday. (Yonhap)She also said the two Koreas ought to work together to cope with climate change, natural disasters and other

North Korea July 10, 2015

Seoul and Washington will likely come to a “crucial agreement” on North Korea during President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the U.S. capital later this year to help shift the regime’s strategic calculations and expedite progress in their nuclear talks, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Thursday. South Korea’s top diplomat also called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to seize a “golden opportunity” to tackle persistent international concerns over his revisionist views through a statement to be

Foreign Affairs July 9, 2015

The Air Force launched the country’s first space monitoring body Wednesday as part of efforts to better track other countries’ satellites, predict cosmic weather and fend off any future accidents and threats from the air. The Space Operation Center, unveiled at the Air Force’s headquarters in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province, is equipped with a common operation picture and situation room to help monitor the movement of satellites in two and three dimensions, its global positioning system’s p

Defense July 8, 2015

Less than a day after South Korea and Japan clinched a breakthrough on Tokyo’s UNESCO World Heritage bid, tension is brewing again as Japan attempts to water down its statement on the use of forced Korean labor during the colonial period. Twenty-three Japanese wartime industrial facilities were listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites Sunday, following a compromise that Tokyo stipulates that it forced Koreans to work at some of them and plans to honor them in the final document. In a footnote enshr

Foreign Affairs July 6, 2015

Japan’s major wartime industrial facilities were listed as World Heritage sites on Sunday, with Tokyo conceding forced labor and other cruelties against Koreans for the first time on the world stage and vowing measures to commemorate the victims. The decision made at a World Heritage Committee conference in Bonn, Germany, marked a breakthrough between South Korea and Japan following grueling two-month negotiations over how to address the appalling chapter of the archipelago country’s history tha

Foreign Affairs July 6, 2015