Amid deadlocked defense cost-sharing talks between Seoul and Washington, a senior US official on Wednesday said both the sides are “committed” to hammering out an agreement, while stressing the stance of “fair share of burden” among allies. 　 “For sure we are working very hard to bring a closure to this. We’d prefer that we wrapped this up several months ago, but both sides are committed to make this happen,” Marc Knapper, deputy assistant secretary of

South Korea's top diplomat had separate talks Tuesday with her Australian and Indian counterparts on the coronavirus response, Seoul's foreign ministry said. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Australian counterpart, Marise Payne, exchanged views by phone on ways for bilateral cooperation against the pandemic, it said. Both nations are known to be coping with the crisis effectively. The ministers agreed on the need to prepare for the recurrence of incidents similar to COVID-19, provide

Seoul has long been in a tricky position as a result of the great-power contest between Washington and Beijing. 　 South Korea has preferred to maintain a balance between its longtime security ally the US and top trading partner China, through hedging -- or, arguably, by avoiding taking sides. That way, it was on relatively good terms with both superpowers. 　 But that could change. With the coronavirus pandemic fueling an already serious tug of war between the world’s two largest economi

South Korea on Tuesday urged Japan to retract its territorial claims to Dokdo islets in the East Sea, saying it will “sternly respond” to any provocation by Japan over the islets. 　 In the 2020 edition of its Diplomatic Bluebook, Japanese Foreign Ministry referred to Dokdo with its Japanese name Takeshima, describing it as Japan’s “inherent territory historically and by international law.” The book claimed that Korea is “illegally occupying” the islets

The foreign ministry called in a senior Japanese diplomat on Tuesday to lodge a protest after Tokyo's latest annual diplomatic book repeated territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo. Kim Jung-han, director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry called in Hirohisa Soma, a senior official from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to express regret over the book's content and urge for Tokyo to retract the claims. Soma walked into the ministry building a

Professor says balance of individualism, collectivism key to an effective response to COVID-19

South Korea was to send rotational peacekeeping troops to South Sudan on a chartered flight Monday, after months of delay due to the coronavirus, the defense ministry said. On its way back, the flight will make a stopover in Ethiopia to bring home South Korean citizens stranded on the African continent amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry said. The 12th batch for the 300-strong Hanbit Unit was supposed to be in the war-torn nation in March on peacekeeping missions, but their dispatch has

South Korea said Monday it will provide $53 million in loans and grants for nations in Central and South America to help them combat the coronavirus pandemic. The Ministry of Finance and Economy said it will spend $50 million through an "Economic Cooperation Development Fund" via the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Another $3 million will be available to the IDB to help nations in Central and South America address challenges during the public health crisis, the ministry sa

　 South Korea said Sunday that it has provided about $1 million worth of coronavirus test devices and other help to Iran as part of efforts to support its fight against the global pandemic. 　 The assistance was granted to an Iranian state-run medical research institute as a token of humanitarian support and friendship between the two countries, according to the South Korean Embassy in Teheran. 　 This was in addition to Seoul's provision of about $200,000 worth of assistance to Iran last month,

A chartered South Korean flight Sunday brought home 239 Korean nationals from Russia where all international flights were grounded amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Korean Air flight, arranged by the South Korean Embassy in Russia, landed at Incheon International Airport earlier in the day after leaving Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. On the plane were Korean students, business travelers and families of Korean workers in Russia. This marks the third flight South Korea has sent to

South Korea said Saturday it will explore ways to expand transnational movement and exchanges of businesspeople and doctors in Northeast Asia as it held a health ministers' meeting with China and Japan over the coronavirus. The health ministers of South Korea, China and Japan agreed Friday to cooperate in tackling the coronavirus and developing a vaccine in their first teleconference since the virus emerged in China late last year. South Korean Health Minister Park Neunghoo proposed the idea

A host of declassified US documents revealed former president Chun Doo-hwan reached out to the US in the aftermath of staging a military coup in 1979, that later put him into power.  In about 140 pages of State Department documents released by the Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Friday, the full text report of the meeting between then US Ambassador to Korea William Gleysteen and Chun on Dec. 15, 1979, three days after the coup, was revealed.  Chun told Gleysteen that he staged a c

WASHINGTON -- The United States and South Korea are negotiating a defense cost-sharing agreement that will be fully acceptable to both President Donald Trump and President Moon Jae-in, a US official said Thursday. The two countries have been wide apart on how much Seoul should contribute to the cost of keeping 28,500 American troops stationed on the peninsula. The US has demanded $1.3 billion a year -- a nearly 50 percent increase from last year -- while South Korea has refused to accept anyt

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Seoul reiterated Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning to visit Seoul by the end of the year. But the exact schedule of the visit has not yet been fixed, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday. “We will continue to negotiate while evaluating the coronavirus situation,” said spokesman Kim In-chul in a regular briefing. On Wednesday during their roughly 30-minute phone conference, Xi told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that there was no c

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed Wednesday that he remains firmly committed to a plan to visit South Korea within this year, speaking on the phone with President Moon Jae-in. Moon replied that Xi's trip here is "more important than any other thing" in Seoul-Beijing relations, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. They agreed to continue consultations so that the visit can be made "at an appropriate time" as soon as coronavirus situations stabilize and re