A former US national security advisor stressed the need Thursday for South Korea to increase its defense spending to 3 percent or 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), as Seoul and Washington are in negotiations over a defense cost-sharing deal. Robert O'Brien, who served as national security advisor for former President Donald Trump from 2019-2021, made the remarks, as South Korea and the United States are holding their eighth round of negotiations in Seoul this week to determin

Talk resumed less than a year before Japan could unilaterally terminate agreement on undersea resource exploration

This year Turkmenistan celebrates the 33rd anniversary of its Independence and marks the 32nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea. Thirty-three years ago, the Constitutional Act on the independence and state structure of Turkmenistan was adopted, according to which Turkmenistan was proclaimed as an independent democratic state. From the date of its independence, under the wise leadership of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Turkmenistan has confiden

Roughly two in three Asian American voters support Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris over her Republican rival Donald Trump, a recent survey showed, amid expectations over the role of the rapidly growing voting bloc in the Nov. 5 general election. APIAVote, a nonpartisan organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, and AAPI Data, a research entity, released the outcome of the survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the Universi

Rwandan foreign minister says Korea-Africa summit affirms strategic partnership between Seoul and Kigali

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Tuesday that voters will see a "mass exodus of manufacturing" to America from South Korea, China and other countries if they vote for him in November, as he stepped up efforts to court swing voters in a battleground state. Trump made the remarks during a campaign speech on tax policy in Savannah, Georgia, as various polls have shown the former president and his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in a tight race with the general election l

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday made no reference to North Korea in his fourth and final speech to the UN General Assembly as president, though he stressed his commitment to diplomacy with Pyongyang and decried its sanctions violations in past addresses to the annual high-level gathering. The absence of his reference to the North came as Washington's repeated overtures for dialogue with the recalcitrant regime have gone unanswered with Pyongyang doubling down on its nuclear and missile pr

3 top diplomats pledge efforts for lasting trilateral cooperation despite leadership changes

President Yoon Suk Yeol returned home Sunday from his trip to the Czech Republic, focused on strengthening South Korea's bid to secure a nuclear energy deal and enhance economic ties with the European nation. Yoon held summit talks with Czech President Petr Pavel and Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Thursday and Friday, promoting Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's (KHNP) bid to build two nuclear power plants in Dukovany, after being selected as a preferred bidder in July. His visit came as

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul will fly to New York next week to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to discuss key international issues and highlight South Korea's efforts toward sustainable peace, his office said Thursday. During the six-day visit starting Monday, Cho will deliver a keynote speech at the general debate of the high-level gathering to reaffirm South Korea's commitment to ensuring global peace and prosperity, foreign ministry spokespers

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered its benchmark interest rate by half of a percentage point, the first cut in 4 1/2 years, in a major policy shift less than seven weeks away from the presidential election. After the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the central bank announced the decision to reduce the rate to the 4.75 to 5.0 percent range from its 23-year high, putting an end to its post-pandemic tightening cycle. FOMC members' new median economic projections showed

The United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed country, a senior US diplomat said Wednesday, after Pyongyang made a rare disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility last week. During a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell reiterated the US position, reaffirming America's "durable" and "evolving" deterrence commitment to South Korea, and stressing that Washington "will not accept any kind of threat&

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated Chuseok, the Korean autumn harvest celebration, in a message stressing Korean Americans' cultural heritage and contributions to the United States, as the first-ever White House Chuseok reception took place Tuesday. Some 100 Korean Americans, US officials and others gathered at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for the event that was made possible under an initiative led largely by former and current Korean American White

The US Forces Korea commander nominee on Tuesday described North Korea's "rapid" advancement of its nuclear and missile capabilities as the "single greatest" challenge facing the Korea-based command, vowing to maintain a "constant" state of readiness if confirmed. During a confirmation hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lieut. Gen. Xavier Brunson, currently the commander of First Corps, also voiced concerns over growing military exchanges between P

The Embassy of Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions with the immersive exhibition, “Digital Dilemmas – Civilians a+ Heart,” at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. The Geneva Conventions, a set of international humanitarian laws that were concluded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1949, established international legal standards for humanitarian treatment during war. The set of intern