Yang Jiechi, a senior Chinese government official, will visit Busan this week to discuss issues, including Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to South Korea. According to Cheong Wa Dae, Yang -- a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China -- will visit Busan on a two-day trip from Friday on invitation from Suh Hoon, chief of the presidential national security office. This is Yang’s first visit to Korea since July 2018, and his first meeting with Suh after S

Yang Jiechi, a senior Chinese government official, will visit Busan this week for talks with Suh Hoon, director of presidential national security, with President Xi Jinping's push for a trip here likely to be discussed, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday. Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, is scheduled to visit the southern port city from Friday through Saturday, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. Yang, a former foreign mi

Choi Jong-kun, the new first vice foreign minister, said in his inaugural address Tuesday that the foreign ministry should shoulder "unlimited" responsibility to ensure people's safety. Last week, President Moon Jae-in named Choi, former secretary for peace planning at the presidential national security office, to the post in charge of the country's bilateral ties with other nations. "When it comes to nationals' safety, the foreign ministry should shoulder unlimited responsibil

A South Korean court has dismissed an appeal filed by a Japanese steelmaker against a ruling that authorized the seizure of its assets in Korea to compensate victims of wartime forced labor. 　 The Daegu District Court’s Pohang branch said Monday that it had found “no reason” to accept the appeal by Nippon Steel, formerly known as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal. The decision, however, is not final and the case now moves to a higher court of appeal in Daegu. 　 Nippon Steel

Caught in a spiraling spat between the US and China, South Korea should balance its strategy to maintain the alliance with its longtime ally the US and at the same time prosper from the Chinese economy, a renowned American political scientist said Thursday.  Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University professor emeritus who served as assistant secretary of defense for international security under former US President Bill Clinton, said South Korea, sandwiched between larger countries like China and

Trump considers delaying G-7 summit to after the presidential election in November

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump said Monday that he wants to host a Group of Seven summit after the presidential election in November, not in September as previously planned. South Korea has paid keen attention to the upcoming G7 meeting since Trump said in May that he will invite the country, along with Australia, India and Russia, to join the forum. "I'm much more inclined to do it sometime after the election," Trump said during a White House press briefing. "We wer

  South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is in Berlin on her first overseas trip in six months since the coronavirus outbreak. 　 The Korean official was set to hold a meeting with German counterpart Heiko Maas on Monday morning (local time) to discuss various issues, including the two countries’ responses to the pandemic, bilateral ties, people-to-people exchanges and other international issues, according to the Foreign Ministry  　 Kang flew to the German capital Sunday

South Korea will lift restrictions on arrivals from China's Hubei province, believed to be the epicenter of COVID-19 outbreaks, starting Monday, as virus cases have eased there and China has relaxed entry bans for South Koreans, health authorities said Friday. Since Feb. 4, South Korea has imposed entry bans on foreigners who visited or traveled to Hubei province in the preceding two weeks and holders of visas issued by Hubei authorities. South Korea also has suspended visa-issuance work by i

DAEGU -- A Japanese company has appealed a South Korean court's ruling to seize its assets in the country to compensate victims of wartime forced labor in a move expected to worsen tensions between the two countries. Nippon Steel Corp. has submitted an immediate complaint against the court's decision to seize some of its stake in PNR, a joint venture established with Korea's top steelmaker, POSCO, the Daegu District Court in the southeastern city of Daegu said Friday. The move, which came day

The homes of two South Koreans in Beirut were damaged in the massive deadly blast in the Lebanese city that killed at least 135 people and injured over 5,000, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. "We have found that two of our nationals suffered partial damage to their houses," the ministry said, adding that no South Korean casualties have been reported so far.  The South Korean Embassy in Lebanon is mobilizing all available resources to find out if any other Koreans have

The South Korean Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that there were no reports so far of South Korean casualties in a huge explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut that left more than 100 people dead and more than 4,000 injured. 　 On Tuesday, two massive explosions at port warehouses storing highly explosive materials rocked the Port of Beirut, shaking buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. It is still unclear what exactly caused the blast, according to t

The foreign ministry said Wednesday that there have been no reports of South Korean casualties yet in this week's massive explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut that left more than 70 people dead and thousands injured. Tuesday's blast at Beirut's port occurred after a warehouse that had unsafely stored large amounts of confiscated ammonium nitrate, an explosive compound, for six years caught fire, reports said. About 140 South Korean citizens are currently in the country. There are also

SEOUL/TOKYO -- A Japanese company plans to appeal a South Korean court decision on the seizure of its assets here to compensate victims of wartime forced labor, reports said Tuesday, a move that would defer the judicial process feared to worsen tensions between the two countries. Nippon Steel Corp. will file an appeal immediately, as a branch of the Daegu District Court has become able to kick off the procedure to liquidate some of its stake in PNR, a joint venture established with Korea's top

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Monday ordered a senior diplomat who has been accused of sexual assault when he was stationed in New Zealand to return home immediately.  A senior ministry official said the order is part of disciplinary action taken for the diplomat causing a lot of trouble. He also said the government is willing to cooperate if New Zealand requests extradition of the diplomat.  “We can cooperate in accordance with the procedure for mutual assistance on