South Korea on Monday denounced Japan's repeated sovereignty claim to the easternmost islets of Dokdo and urged the neighbor to face up to history in order to improve bilateral relations. The foreign ministry lodged a strong protest after Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi reiterated Tokyo's stance on the East Sea outcroppings in his parliamentary speech earlier in the day. "The Japanese government should stop its unreasonable claim to Dokdo, which is clearly our inherent territo

The top trade officials of South Korea and Canada agreed Monday to strengthen cooperation on supply chains of key materials and other trade issues, Seoul's industry ministry said. Seoul's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and his Canadian counterpart, Mary Ng, reached the consensus during a video conference earlier in the day, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. During the meeting, the two sides vowed to boost ties in supply chains of raw materials and major minerals by promoting

Summit with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed canceled for unknown reasons

South Korea will strengthen cooperation with the United Arab Emirates in major technologies related to the hydrogen economy, President Moon Jae-in said Sunday. The president, who is in Dubai for a three-day visit as part of his trip to the Middle East, made the remark at a business forum attended by Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure of the UAE. “Korea and the UAE will expand energy cooperation into the hydrogen sector, a core energy resource in the

BEIJING/SHENYANG -- A North Korean freight train crossed the Yalu River railroad bridge into China on Sunday, multiple sources said, raising the prospect of the two sides resuming land transactions in earnest following more than a year of suspension attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. The train from Sinuiju arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong at around 9:10 a.m., they said, while it was not immediately confirmed whether it carried cargo or was empty, they said. It is likely to ret

The South Korean government has further beefed up its early warning monitoring system on thousands of core industrial items in a bid to prevent the recurrence of a problem like the abrupt supply crunch of urea solution late last year, according to the country's foreign ministry Sunday. The ministry said such a strengthened "economic security" system has been established at 37 embassies and other diplomatic missions abroad to monitor the supply conditions of more than 4,000 items. In

South Korea has extended its special advisory against overseas travel for another month amid the global spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19, the foreign ministry said Friday. In the advisory, people are recommended to cancel or postpone nonessential trips abroad until Feb. 13, while asking those overseas to take measures to prevent exposure to the virus, such as refraining from going to large-scale events. It was first issued in March 2020 and has been extended every month. (Yonhap)

A South Korean passenger jet carrying dozens of citizens departed Thursday from a Kazakh airport to return home, eight days after it got grounded in the Central Asian nation gripped by political turmoil. The Asiana Airlines Inc. flight took off from Almaty International Airport at 1:13 p.m. (local time), carrying 43 South Koreans and four Kazakh nationals, an official at Seoul's foreign ministry said. The plane had been stranded in Kazakhstan since it landed there on Jan. 5, when protesters to

South Korea said Thursday the US push for additional UN sanctions on North Korea appears intended to drum up a unified response from the international community to Pyongyang's recent provocations. Washington appears to want to expand sanctions under existing UN Security Council resolutions rather than to adopt new resolutions, according to Choi Young-sam, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was referring to a public message by the US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield t

Senior diplomats of South Korea and the United States held phone talks Wednesday to discuss the bilateral alliance and other issues on the Korean Peninsula, according to officials. Yeo Seung-bae, deputy foreign minister for political affairs, and his US counterpart Daniel Kritenbrink had comprehensive discussions on regional and global issues, a foreign ministry official said without elaborating. "I had a great conversation with Deputy Foreign Minister Yeo on the US-ROK relationship and o

The United States has authorized the South Korean government to send overdue compensation to Iran's Dayyani Group under a 2018 investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. The US Treasury Department's Office Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a "specific license" on Jan. 6 to allow the Seoul government to pay compensation to the Iranian investor over a failed takeover of Daewoo Electronics dating back to 2010, according to the ministry. Earlie

South Korea and India have agreed to resume negotiations to upgrade their bilateral trade pact next month after more than two years of hiatus, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday. The two nations implemented the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in January 2010 and began talks to upgrade the pact in 2015. But negotiations have been suspended since June 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues. South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and India's Commerce and In

A South Korean passenger jet that has been grounded in Kazakhstan amid an anti-government protest is expected to return home later this week once the Central Asian nation's largest airport resumes operations, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. The flight of Asiana Airlines Inc., a South Korean flag carrier, with dozens of South Koreans aboard has been grounded at Almaty International Airport since it landed there Wednesday, when protesters took control of the nation's main gateway. The ministr

The US and five other countries condemned Pyongyang’s missile launch last week, and urged the reclusive regime to abandon its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs and return to denuclearization talks on Monday. 　 The joint statement by the US, Japan, France, the UK, Ireland and Albania came ahead of the UN Security Council closed-door meeting in New York to discuss the country’s last week’s test of what Pyongyang called a hypersonic missile. Shortly after the cou

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