US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sent a letter thanking South Korea for helping his country purchase Korean-made coronavirus test kits, saying such a partnership is a testament to the "strong and unshakable" alliance, Seoul officials said. The letter, addressed to Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, came after the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchased the test kits, enough to run 750,000 tests, from three South Korean companies early this month. The shipments fol

Chances of Chinese leader Xi Jinping visiting South Korea in the first half of the year have become more unlikely due to the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Tuesday. South Korea and China have been in talks to arrange Xi's visit to Seoul in the first half of the year. South Korean officials said after a meeting between Xi and President Moon Jae-in in Beijing in December that the Chinese leader is certain to visit South Korea in the first half of this year. But quest

NEW DELHI/SEOUL/HONGSEONG -- A body believed to be of a member of a South Korean trekking group that went missing in a deadly avalanche in Annapurna, Nepal, in January has been discovered by Nepalese authorities, officials said Monday. According to diplomatic sources and trekkers in Nepal, local residents and Nepalese military personnel who have been searching the accident scene have found the body in melting snow. The local search workers confirmed that the body belongs to a South Korean man

South Korea launched a government task force Monday in charge of helping foreign countries cope with the coronavirus by sharing its own quarantine experience amid growing international requests seeking to adopt Seoul's virus response systems. The first interagency meeting, presided over by Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho, took place to discuss details on "how to systematically and effectively respond to" the calls from foreign partners for advice from Seoul on tackling the di

The foreign ministry denied a news report Monday that South Korea has expressed a willingness to provide Japan with face masks to help the neighboring country cope with the coronavirus outbreak. A local newspaper reported earlier in the day that the government suggested the idea to some senior officials of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party through an unofficial channel, and Tokyo has not responded to the offer yet. "We, at the government level, have not sounded out the Japanese government

The bodies of two South Korean trekkers have been discovered after they went missing in January when an avalanche hit the Annapurna region in Nepal, government officials said Sunday. The bodies -- one male and the other female -- were found at about 3 p.m. Saturday by those patrolling around the avalanche-hit area and will be airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu, according to the officials. Their identities have been confirmed with passports found along with the bodies, but details other than

South Korea plans to double its contributions to a UN humanitarian air service program to $5 million over the next three years, the foreign ministry said Friday, amid global efforts to help countries vulnerable to the new coronavirus overcome the pandemic. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha explained Seoul's plan to expand the contributions to David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme, during phone talks on cooperation in responding to the COVID-19 scourge. Managed by the WFP

South Korea has identified one of its citizens aboard a coronavirus-hit cruise ship docked off the Japanese prefecture of Nagasaki, the foreign ministry said Thursday, noting the women remains in good shape. The ministry's consulate general in Fukuoka learned through the owner of the Italian-registered Costa Atlantica that the citizen was among the 623 crewmembers aboard the vessel, where at least 48 people have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. "At present, our citizen has no hea

South Korea held an online video seminar on coronavirus responses for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as part of efforts to help the foreign partners cope with the COVID-19 outbreak, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The web seminar, which took place late Wednesday, came as many foreign countries have expressed interest in learning about South Korea's quarantine and treatment system that has earned global recognition amid a slowdown in infections in the country.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL -- The US state of Colorado will soon receive South Korean-made kits to run more than 100,000 new coronavirus tests, one of its senators has tweeted, after Maryland purchased diagnostic kits to conduct 500,000 tests. Sen. Cory Gardner, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, expressed appreciation to South Korea's government and its Ambassador to the United States Lee Soo-hyuck for cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. "Soon more than

US President Donald Trump said Monday (US time) that he had turned down an offer from South Korea to pay a certain sum as part of a defense cost-sharing deal, saying wealthy countries such as South Korea should pay more to host American troops.  “Now they’ve offered us a certain amount of money and I rejected it,” Trump said during a White House press conference, referring to the drawn-out negotiations on how much each side should pay for the upkeep of the roughly 28,500

South Korea voiced "deep disappointment and regret" Tuesday over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ritual offering to a war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Abe sent a tree offering via his aide to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine earlier in the day as the country marked its two-day spring festival, Kyodo News reported. "The government expresses deep disappointment and regret that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has again sent an offering to Yasukuni Shrine, a symbolic e

WASHINGTON -- The US state of Maryland has purchased $9 million worth of South Korean coronavirus test kits, enabling it to perform 500,000 tests, Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday. Hogan made the announcement during a press conference in the state capital of Annapolis alongside his Korean wife, Yumi, who he said made the purchase -- dubbed "Operation Enduring Friendship" -- possible. "Operation Enduring Friendship was launched on Saturday, March 28, when I asked my wife, Yumi, to j

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha spoke by phone with the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday and discussed ways for cooperation to overcome the coronavirus pandemic, her office said.    In the talks with Filippo Grandi, Kang explained South Korea's active engagement in the international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to countries in need, while also making all-out efforts to stem the virus outbreak on its soil.    She also favorably

South Korea will host an online seminar for several South American countries early next week to share its experience and know-how in tackling the coronavirus, Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday. The video presentation is the second of its kind to take place following a similar one held earlier this month. The last session was attended by health officials and medical experts from 13 countries including the United States, Mexico and Italy. Next week's video seminar, slated for Tuesday, is exp