South Korea’s top diplomat said that she is confident of Washington’s commitment to the alliance and the troop presence in the country during an interview with a US media outlet aired Sunday, as the allies seek to boost coordination amid a diplomatic opening with North Korea. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that US President Donald Trump’s apparent threat to remove US troops from South Korea over a trade dispute “raises eyebrows,” but the country remains “abso

WASHINGTON -- The top diplomats of South Korea and Japan agreed Saturday to strengthen coordination amid a flurry of diplomacy with North Korea and pending bilateral issues, the South's foreign ministry said.South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with her Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, in Washington on the margins of a three-day official visit here.They exchanged views mainly on North Korea and Seoul-Tokyo ties, with both sides agreeing the planned summits between Seoul and Pyongyang

Korea will continue its efforts to tackle climate change utilizing cutting-edge technologies and is willing to fund climate change-battling projects for developing countries, a senior government official said Friday.In a meeting with Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute, Deputy Finance Minister Ko Hyung-kwon lauded the Seoul-based organization for playing a key role in raising global awareness of climate change.Ko said Korea is dedicated to actively participati

WASHINGTON -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha arrived in Washington Thursday to meet with US officials over the two nations' planned summits with North Korea.South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late April, while US President Donald Trump has said he will meet with Kim before the end of May.Both meetings are expected to focus on ways to rid the North of its nuclear weapons program."I think (South Korea and the US) will need to coo

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha left for Washington on Thursday to meet US officials for discussions on North Korean issues as Washington and Pyongyang prepare for a historic summit in May. 　Kang plans to meet acting Secretary of State John Sullivan, Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to her father President Donald Trump, and key congressional leaders including Paul Ryan, speaker of the House of Representatives, in Washington, according to the Foreign Ministry. 　They are expected to discuss recent dev

The dismissal of Rex Tillerson as top U.S. diplomat will have no effect on the allies’ scheduled dialogue with North Korea, an official from Seoul‘s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.The remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he will soon appoint the current head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, as the new secretary of state.“The North Korea-U.S. summit will be held as scheduled as President Trump has personally expressed his decision to do so,” the Ch

South Korea's top diplomat will go ahead with a plan to visit the United States this week to discuss North Korea's nuclear issue despite the announcement of her counterpart's dismissal, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday.Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is to leave for the US on Thursday for a three-day stay during which she plans to meet with Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, according to the official. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (Yonhap)The go-ahead decision came

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's departure comes as "a sudden change," but it won't affect South Korea and the United States' close coordination over North Korean nuclear issues, South Korea's top diplomat said Wednesday.Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha made the remarks to reporters on her way to work earlier this morning following the news that Tillerson will step down from his post.Asked whether it would cause problems for South Korea-US diplomatic coordination, Kang said, "That is unlikel

Korea and the United States will hold the third round of talks on amending the free trade agreement between the two nations in Washington this week, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday.Yoo Myung-hee, a deputy minister for FTA negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will lead the Korean side in the talks with her US counterpart, Assistant Trade Representative Michael Beeman, in Washington DC on Thursday (local time).The meeting comes while Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chon

US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by May for talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, but their different understandings of “denuclearization” stand as a major stumbling block to the possibly history-making talks. Despite growing hopes that the breakthrough between North Korea and the US could tackle the nuclear standoff, skepticism also lingers over whether the summit between Trump and Kim can be held and if so whether it wo

The parliamentary leaders of South Korea and Kazakhstan on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding on strengthening bilateral cooperation in politics, trade, science, culture and other areas, Seoul officials said.The signing came during a meeting between South Korean National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and his Kazakhstani counterpart Nurlan Zairullayevich Nigmatulin in the Central Asian country's capital of Astana. Chung arrived here earlier this week as part of a nine-day trip that al

The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States will meet later this week to discuss details on their planned summits with North Korea, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will meet with her US counterpart Rex Tillerson in Washington on Friday (local time), according to the ministry.The meeting comes after the North recently agreed to hold summits with South Korea and the US. The agreements came out of a recent trip by President Moon Jae-in's spe

TOKYO/SEOUL -- Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono hailed a recent diplomatic breakthrough on the Korean Peninsula on Monday, describing the current situation as a "moment right before the miracle", South Korea's presidential office said. Kono made the remarks during a meeting with South Korea's chief of National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, who is in Tokyo to brief Japan's top officials on his visits to Pyongyang and Washington. In a dramatic turnaround on the Korean Peninsula, US President D