US National Security Adviser John Bolton left for South Korea and Japan on Saturday, a US official said, amid a growing trade dispute between Seoul and Tokyo over wartime forced labor. White House National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said on Twitter that Bolton "departed today for Japan and South Korea to continue conversations with critical allies and friends." The visit by Bolton to South Korea and Japan came a day after US President Donald Trump said he is willing, if

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) -- US President Donald Trump on Friday offered to help ease tensions in the political and economic dispute between Japan and South Korea, which threatens global supplies of memory chips and smartphones.Lingering tension, particularly over the issue of compensation for South Koreans forced to work for Japanese occupiers during World War Two, took a turn for the worse this month when Japan restricted exports of high-tech materials to South Korea.The United States has bee

A top South Koreanofficial on Saturday said a US-South Korean military exercisewould go ahead as planned next month, denying Pyongyang'scharges that holding it would breach an agreement made between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un."The nature of the exercise is not offensive ... and is forstrengthening the alliance," Choi Jong-kun, the secretary forpeace planning to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, told the Aspen Institute's annual strategic forum.Later

South Korea and the United States have been considering staging a joint military exercise next month as scheduled but under a different name, sources said Sunday, amid warnings from North Korea that the drill could affect its nuclear talks with Washington.The allies were known to have planned to conduct the summertime exercise, named 19-2 Dong Maeng, to verify Seoul's capabilities for its envisioned retaking of wartime operational control of its troops from Washington. But they are reviewin

Japan's foreign minister said Tokyo will take "necessary measures" against South Korea if interests of Japanese companies are harmed in an escalating dispute over World War II forced labor.  The neighboring countries and US allies are quarreling over South Korean court decisions ordering Japanese companies to compensate victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Friday after summoning South Korean Ambassa

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said Friday he remained at the ready to help South Korea and Japan solve their lingering dispute over World War II-era forced labor that has blighted their trade ties.After South Korea's high court ordered Japanese firms that used forced labor to compensate victims, Tokyo in early July restricted exports of chemicals vital to Seoul's world-leading chip and smartphone industry in an escalation of their decades-old row.South Korean President Moon Jae-in

A rancorous diplomatic spat between South Korea and Japan is casting doubts over the fate of a military intelligence-sharing pact seen as a rare symbol of their trust and a key platform for trilateral security cooperation involving the United States.The tussle that started from a simmering row over Japan's wartime forced labor has been escalating into the economic domain with Tokyo's July 4 measure to tighten restrictions on exports to South Korea of key industrial materials. It is now fear

The office of President Moon Jae-in accused Japan on Friday of breaching international law with unilateral export restrictions against South Korea.Kim Hyun-chong, deputy chief of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, was countering a statement by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono that Seoul is not abiding by a 1965 bilateral treaty in violation of international law. Japan‘s claim is “incorrect,” Kim told reporters. He pointed out that South Korea’s Supreme Cou

Japan lodges complaint to South Korean envoy, hints at additional measures against Korea

Ambiguity over shared bitter history hit an inevitable wall, says Japanese-born Korean scholar

Seoul and Washington are working on a possible visit to South Korea by US national security adviser John Bolton, a local news outlet reported Thursday. “South Korean and US authorities are consulting over Bolton’s visit to Korea,” Yonhap News Agency quoted an anonymous official with Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying. According to the report, Bolton’s Seoul visit is being arranged on the occasion of his trip to Japan. Japanese media earlier reported

South Korea offered no answer Thursday to Japan’s call to settle the row over Tokyo’s wartime forced labor through third-country arbitration, raising tensions further between the neighbors, with both countries turning down resolution proposals from the other.Seoul intentionally missed Thursday’s deadline by which Tokyo demanded Seoul respond to its request to resolve historical disputes stemming from its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula while hinting at possible ret

Top US envoy for East Asia says ‘US will do what it can’ to help resolve Seoul-Tokyo dispute

Korea has exceeded Japan in controlling trade of strategic materials, a report by a US research institute showed, amid a trade spat between the two neighboring countries as Tokyo blamed “weaknesses” in Seoul’s export control system for its latest restrictions in exports to Korea.South Korea ranked No. 17 among 200 countries surveyed in terms of the effectiveness of national strategic trade controls in a study by the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit

A couple of days ahead of the deadline set by Japan for South Korea to respond to its offer of a formal arbitration process over historical disputes, the office of President Moon Jae-in made clear Tuesday that it won't accept the call.Cheong Wa Dae’s stern stance came amid Tokyo‘s threat of additional trade measures against South Korean companies. It heralds a possible deepening of the rift between the neighboring countries.　"There’s no change in the government‘s pos