WASHINGTON -- A special envoy of South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, an official said.Special envoy Hong Seok-hyun held the meeting with Trump at the White House for 10 minutes from 3:50 p.m. and handed him a letter from Moon, the official said. Also in attendance were National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, the official said. US special envoy Hong Seok-hyun (Yonhap)It was the first time Tru

Foreign Affairs May 18, 2017

Two senior prosecution and Justice Ministry officials offered to resign Thursday, one day after President Moon Jae-in ordered an inspection into allegations they inappropriately gave cash to lower-level officials including a team of prosecutors who probed former President Park Geun-hye and her aides. On Wednesday, the president ordered the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to inspect Ahn Tae-geun, a deputy minister for criminal affairs, and Lee Young-ryeol, chief of the Seoul

Social Affairs May 18, 2017

A female lieutenant colonel on Wednesday was tapped as veterans affairs minister, marking the first case of a female official at the post, according to Cheong Wa Dae.“President Moon Jae-in appointed Pee Woo-jin as minister of patriots and veterans affairs,” Cho Hyun-ock, senior presidential secretary for personnel affairs, said in a briefing. Pee Woo-jin (Yonhap)Pee joined the military in 1979 and has since then served in physically challenging posts such as special forces commander and helicopt

Defense May 17, 2017

President Moon Jae-in is set to meet with the floor leaders of the five major parties later this week to call for their support in state management, a senior presidential official said Wednesday.Moon will hold a luncheon meeting with the floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party, main opposition Liberty Korea Party, People's Party, Bareun Party and Justice Party at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Friday, the official said. President Moon Jae-in speaks during a National Security Counc

Politics May 17, 2017

The ruling Democratic Party on Wednesday revved up efforts to forge cooperative ties with opposition parties to support new President Moon Jae-in in seeking parliamentary backing for his Cabinet nominees, and economic and reform initiatives.A day after his election as the party's new floor leader, Woo Won-shik paid courtesy calls to the leaders of the four opposition parties and reiterated his pledge to play a pivotal role in fostering cooperation among all parties.The DP also created a senior p

Politics May 17, 2017

South Korean President Moon Jae-in continued to blast North Korea Wednesday, calling its recent missile launch a serious threat to global peace and security that should never be tolerated."North Korea launched a missile four days ago and claims to have succeeded in launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile," Moon said while visiting the Defense Ministry in Seoul for a policy briefing."Launching ballistic missiles is a serious provocation that violates UN Security Council resolutions, as

North Korea May 17, 2017

Police said Wednesday they have arrested a ring of people, including a U.S. soldier, over illegally taking US Forces Korea vehicles out of a base to sell them to civilians. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said six people are accused of conspiring to steal three Humvee vehicles each worth some 40 million won ($35,700) to 70 million won from a US base here in June and September last year. This photo released by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on May 17, 2017, shows a Humvee vehicle stole

Social Affairs May 17, 2017

North Korea on Tuesday released a detailed report on the global WannaCry ransomware attack, but kept mum about international suspicions that it might have been behind the destructive hacking."The cyberattack, which was carried out via the Internet around May 12, swept through a great number of government agencies and business in some 150 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, around the world," the Rodong Sinmun, an official daily of the North's ruling Workers

North Korea May 17, 2017

A 45-year-old man was sentenced to a year in prison Wednesday for driving his truck into the main entrance of a local broadcasting channel whose reports on former President Park Geun-hye led to her impeachment.The Seoul Western District Court found the man, identified only by his last name Kim, guilty of crashing his 1-ton vehicle into the main entrance of JTBC in western Seoul in December, about a week after Park was impeached by the parliament.  In this file photo taken on Dec. 19, 2017, a pol

Social Affairs May 17, 2017

The long-standing dispute over wartime sexual slavery has resurfaced to strain South Korea-Japan relations, as the government change in Seoul and a UN experts panel's recommendation lent momentum for redressing a 2015 deal aimed at resolving one of the trickiest issues between the two nations. President Moon Jae-in, who took office last Wednesday, called for the renegotiation of the much-criticized agreement during his campaign. In a telephone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Foreign Affairs May 17, 2017

Cyberattacks against South Korea increased during the first quarter of the year with the country coming in second place in terms of the number of attacks, a report showed Wednesday.According to the report by global cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, 26.57 percent of the distributed denial of service attacks occurred against South Korea, up from 9.42 percent a quarter earlier. (Yonhap)China topped the list of the 72 countries checked by receiving a total of 47.78 percent of the DDoS attacks dur

Social Affairs May 17, 2017

The United States military stationed in South Korea has informed the host country of its detection of a recent North Korean missile launch, but important facts were omitted in the information sharing, sources said Wednesday.Following North Korea's ballistic missile launch on early Sunday, the US Forces Korea informed the South Korean military that the TPY-2 radar component of the recently stationed Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system detected the North Korean missile, the intelligence sou

North Korea May 17, 2017

South Korea's unification ministry on Wednesday expressed a need to reopen an inter-Korean communication hotline, which was severed early last year following North Korea's nuclear and missile tests.In February 2016, North Korea cut off two inter-Korean communication channels as it expelled remaining South Koreans from a joint industrial park in response to South Korea's closure of the Kaesong complex.The Ministry of Unification (Yonhap)One of them is a hotline at a liaison office located at the

Foreign Affairs May 17, 2017

The United Nations has raised questions over the way North Korea restored flood damage last year, pointing out that it put more emphasis on building and infrastructure reconstruction than flood victims, a US broadcaster said Tuesday. The North's flood restoration went against the traditional post-disaster patterns, Voice of America said, citing a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on its after-action review on rehabilitation projects in North Hamkyong Province

North Korea May 17, 2017

Three military cadets from Saudi Arabia will start receiving training in South Korea's military academies next year following an agreement on military education signed between the two countries' defense ministries Wednesday.The Ministry of National Defense here said that the agreement on the military education exchange and cooperation was signed between the two parties in Seoul earlier in the day. Korea Military Academy cadets (Yonhap)The latest agreement is part of the two countries' broader pa

Defense May 17, 2017