South Korea vowed Monday to do its part "responsibly" to contribute to international efforts in addressing global challenges that threaten peace and security, as it began its two-year term as an elected member of the United Nations Security Council. South Korea won the UNSC nonpermanent member seat in June last year with 180 votes from 192 member states at the UN General Assembly in New York. It will serve on the council, one of the six key organs of the UN, until 2025. The UNSC is pri

Two South Koreans have been released unharmed after being abducted by an unidentified armed group in southern Nigeria, Seoul's foreign ministry said Saturday. The two men in their 50s and 60s, respectively, were taken during an ambush by the group in Gbaran in the southern district of Enwe in the West African country on Dec. 12, according to sources. They are employees of Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., a major South Korean builder. South Korean authorities secured the custody

South Korea’s Defense Ministry came under heavy criticism Thursday for calling the nation’s easternmost sovereign islets of Dokdo as an “area of territorial dispute,” in its latest military education material for soldiers. President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the ministry to “immediately correct” the labels in the textbook and said the “mistake should have never happened and should not be repeated.” Yoon’s orders came mere hours after the minist

Former US President Donald Trump could make a "bolder" shift in North Korea policy if reelected, an American expert said Wednesday, raising the prospects of him eyeing another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation chair at the Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies, also warned of a potential policy "clash" between South Korea and the United States should Trump handle the

The Israeli Embassy in South Korea on Wednesday deleted a self-produced controversial video featuring an imaginary case of Seoul being attacked by the Hamas group, after the South Korean government expressed concern over the matter. On its social media channels, the embassy on Tuesday uploaded the video featuring a potential terror attack in Seoul on a Christmas day. In the footage, a young mother looks at her cellphone as it suddenly issues an air raid warning while she is watching her daughter

The Cambodian ambassador to South Korea pitched the country's new Pentagonal Strategy, aimed at transforming it into a high-income country for South Korean investors, underscoring the improved investment landscape. "Cambodia’s new investment law, sub-degree and its launch of Pentagonal Strategy Phase 1 provide a conducive investment environment and create more opportunities for businessmen and investors," Ambassador Chring Botumrangsay said at the 2nd Cambodia-Korea Business

South Korea is in talks with Poland to ensure the multiple arms contracts signed between Korean companies and the Polish government will be carried out as agreed despite the change of the leadership in Warsaw, a Seoul official said Tuesday. Concerns are growing as the new Polish government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, signaled a revision to some of the arms contracts inked under the preceding government, citing overspending of the budget. South Korean defense firms have clinched about $13

Indian ambassador to Korea highlights salience of strategic cooperation across space, 5G networks and green energy

The United Nations' refugee agency has recommended China ensure "viable and effective humanitarian space" for North Korean refugees, according to a report posted on the website of the UN Human Rights Council. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees made the recommendation as China is set to undergo a universal periodic review in January. UPR is a mechanism that calls for each UN member state to go through a peer review of its human rights record every 4.5 years. The re

Pope Francis expressed hope for efforts to foster lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula through "dialogue and reconciliation" in his Christmas message on Monday, amid tensions heightened by North Korea's recent missile launches and tough rhetoric. The pontiff delivered the message during his "Urbi et Orbi" -- or "to the city and the world" -- blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican as the world has been beset by multiple secur

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — At least 68 people were killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, health officials said Sunday, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat over the weekend rose to 15. Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including a baby, and wounded following the strike on the Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones. The 68

A student opened fire Thursday at a university in Prague, killing at least 14 people, officials said, and injuring more than 20 in the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting. The bloodshed took place in the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooter was a student, Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said. The gunman also died, authorities said. His name has not been released. Vondrasek said in the evening that 14 people had died and 25 were injured, after earlie

South Korea and Japan agreed Thursday to work together to "fully realize" the potential in economic cooperation as they resumed high-level economic talks in nearly eight years amid a thaw in bilateral ties. The two countries reached the agreement during the economic dialogue, led by Kang Jae-kwon, South Korea's deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, and Keiichi Ono, Japanese senior deputy foreign minister, Seoul's foreign ministry said. The two sides "agreed to st

South Korea will again seek to compensate the victims of Japan's wartime forced labor under the government's third-party reimbursement system, the foreign ministry said Thursday, after the Supreme Court handed down a ruling ordering Japanese companies to compensate the victims. Earlier in the day, the top court announced the decisions on two damages suits filed against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp. between 2013 and 2014, ordering them to compensate the South K

The Venezuelan Embassy in Seoul held a solemn ceremony commemorating the 193rd death anniversary of Simon Bolivar, a revered figure in South American history, on Monday. Simon Bolivar, born in 1783 in Caracas, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who is known for his key role in struggles for independence from Spanish rule in Latin America, leading to the independence of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama. Bolivar died on December 17, 1830. Delivering remarks at the