ATLANTA/SEOUL -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited a plant construction site of SK Innovation Co., the country's leading battery maker, in the United States on Saturday. The facility in the state of Georgia is regarded as symbolizing close partnerships between the two countries in the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector. The company is investing around 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in the construction project, with trial production under way starting in March. "This plant symbo

ATLANTA/SEOUL -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in left the United States on Saturday following a four-day trip for summit talks with US President Joe Biden. Earlier in the day, he flew to Atlanta from Washington, D.C. to make a brief visit to a Georgia plant construction site of SK Innovation Co., a South Korea-based battery maker. It marked Moon's first overseas travel since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he is returning home with "better-than-expected" results fro

South Korea, the United States and Japan are rearranging trilateral defense talks after they were forced to cancel a meeting slated for June in Singapore due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Sunday. Defense Minister Suh Wook and his US and Japanese counterparts -- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Minister Nobuo Kishi -- had initially planned to hold talks on the sidelines of the security forum of the Shangri-La Dialogue, set to take place in the Southeast Asian country on June 4-5.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's summit meetings with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday presented contrasting appearances from those held about a month ago between the leaders of the United States and Japan, officials said. The most noteworthy differences were the length of the summit meetings and the lunch menu. Moon and Biden held 171 minutes of one-on-one, small group and expanded summit meetings, about 20 minutes longer than the April 16 meetings between the US president a

US President Joe Biden has demonstrated a clear commitment to engaging with North Korea by appointing a special envoy to specifically deal with North Korea issues, but whether the North will come to the table in the near future remains to be seen, US experts said Friday. In a joint press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Biden announced his appointment of Acting Assistant Secretary of State Sung Kim as "US special envoy for the DPRK" to "help drive all these eff

South Korea and the United States announced said Friday they will broaden cooperation in the nuclear energy sector to penetrate deeper into overseas markets. "We commit to develop cooperation in overseas nuclear markets, including joint participation in nuclear power plant projects, while ensuring the highest standards of international nuclear safety, security and nonproliferation are maintained," the two countries said in a joint statement. The statement came in line with the summit

The following is the full text of a joint statement by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Joe Biden released by the White House at the end of their bilateral summit in Washington on Friday. US-ROK Leaders' Joint Statement Over seventy years ago, the alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea was forged on the battlefield, as we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in war. Bonded in common sacrifice, our partnership has helped to keep the peace in the decades since, al

President Moon Jae-in and US President Joe Biden agreed at their summit Friday to pursue a global COVID-19 vaccine partnership while reaffirming their commitment to dialogue with a recalcitrant North Korea. The leaders held their first in-person meeting in Washington four months after Biden took office as the pandemic rages on and Pyongyang shows no interest in resuming talks with either Seoul or Washington. Speaking in a joint press conference at the White House following their talks, Biden p

This week's summit agreement between South Korea and the United States on COVID-19 vaccines, tech supply chains, climate change and other non-security issues underscored a broadening of their alliance amid heightened Sino-US rivalry, analysts said Saturday. During their first in-person summit in Washington on Friday, Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden agreed on broad-based cooperation, as the US seeks to rally its democratic allies to confront shared challenges such as an assertive China and

South Korea's health minister said Friday that he will hold talks with his US counterpart this week to discuss ways to cooperate on COVID-19 vaccines. Kwon Deok-cheol said his meeting with US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in Washington on Friday will be a good opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the two countries on health issues. Kwon made the comments to reporters ahead of his departure to Washington earlier in the day. The meeting comes on the sidelines of S

South Korea should make a strategic decision in the face of intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, an American expert said Friday, warning that Seoul has been increasingly isolated from the region's multilateral diplomacy due to its "ambivalent" stance. Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made the point in a presentation for a seminar on the South Korea-US alliance, saying that such isolation will ultimately leave South Kor

WASHINGTON -- US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law an anti-Asian hate crimes act, enabling expedited federal government investigation into hate crimes targeting Asian and Pacific Islander communities. The signing of the law came one day after the House of Representatives voted 364-62 to pass the bill. The Senate had voted 94-1 to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act on April 22. "For centuries, Asian Americans, native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, diverse and vibrant communitie

WASHINGTON -- The United States welcomes the opportunity to discuss ways to help South Korea's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and how they can work together to help the rest of the world, a White House spokesperson said Thursday. Jen Psaki made the remarks one day before President Joe Biden was set to hold a bilateral summit with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in. "We certainly expect that the leaders will discuss ways the United States can support South Korea in its fight ag

WASHINGTON -- A Korean captain and four crew members of a fishing boat have been kidnapped in waters off Ghana, in west Africa, a report said Thursday. The five crew members of the Atlantic Princess, a tuna boat, were kidnapped on Thursday (local time), according to the report from Dryad Global, a maritime security and intelligence provider. "The vessel is understood to have been approached by one speedboat with 8 pirates onboard," it said, adding the incident reportedly took place 6

WASHINGTON -- A US lawmaker proposed a bill on Thursday that calls for US efforts to declare a formal end to the Korean War and exchange liaison offices with North Korea. The bill, proposed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), also seeks to require the State Department to consider lifting its travel ban on North Korea for Korean Americans with separated families in the North. "The United States should pursue a sustained and credible diplomatic process to achieve an end to the Korean War, and ever