Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong will visit Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia next week for talks with his counterparts over public health, economic recovery from COVID-19 and other regional issues, the foreign ministry said Thursday. It will mark Chung's first trip to Southeast Asia since his inauguration in February. The trip, set to begin Monday, comes amid Seoul's efforts to cement its New Southern Policy aimed at deepening cooperation with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Norway’s largest art museum in the Nordic region is set to open in Oslo in 2022, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Seoul told The Korea Herald on Tuesday. The museum will have a collection of 400,000 works ranging from antiquities to the present day, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, textiles, furniture and architectural models. Designed collectively by German architects Kleihues and Schuwerk, and built by Norway’s government building commissioner Statsbygg, the museum reflec

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on Thursday pledged efforts to realize the United Nations' values of peace and liberty on the Korean Peninsula during a forum marking nearly three decades since the country joined the international body. Chung also reaffirmed the Moon Jae-in administration's "unwavering" efforts for lasting peace on the divided peninsula, as Seoul and Washington seek a diplomatic strategy to resume nuclear diplomacy with a recalcitrant Pyongyang. "The Moon adminis

BARCELONA -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a major annual economic forum of Spain with King Felipe VI on Wednesday. Addressing the inaugural dinner of the three-day event in Barcelona, Moon proposed that the two countries spearhead preparations for the post-coronavirus era via a win-win approach. "The two countries have complementary industrial structures," he said. "Synergy through cooperation would be great." He pointed out that Spain is a global leader in

MADRID/SEOUL -- President Moon Jae-in and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday agreed to elevate bilateral ties to the status of a “strategic partnership,” under which the two countries will further enhance cooperation in a wide range of areas such as business and technology.   Moon arrived in the Spanish capital Tuesday, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to their joint statement, the

  　Two Spanish companies will invest a combined $200 million in the renewable energy business in South Korea, Seoul‘s trade ministry said Wednesday. 　 　Madrid-based Ocean Winds decided to make an initial investment worth $100 million to establish an offshore wind power plant in Incheon, west of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. 　 　Ocean Winds was founded in 2019 as a joint venture of Spanish energy enterprise EDPR and French company ENGIE to invest in wi

The Peruvian Embassy opened an art exhibition Tuesday to celebrate the bicentennial of the country’s independence. “In Praise of the Shadow” is dedicated to the works of Fernando de Szyszlo, one of Latin America’s most renowned abstract artists. Fernando de Szyszlo was a Peruvian painter, sculptor, printmaker and teacher who gained prominence in the mid-1950s. The often indefinable figures that appear in his works are offset by his love of color, texture and eye-catching

The Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement is a symbol that stands against protectionism, and underlines the EU and Korea’s strong commitment to a rules-based international trade order, German Ambassador to Korea Michael Reiffenstuel said Wednesday, at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the trade agreement. The anniversary event was collectively held by Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the German Embassy in Korea and the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea to celebrate the

Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon has stressed the importance of a human rights-based approach to new digital technologies, citing privacy concerns and other side effects, during an international human rights meeting, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. Choi made the remarks during Tuesday's virtual panel discussion that South Korea, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Morocco, Singapore and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) co-organized ahead of the 47th regular

WASHINGTON -- Strict and continued enforcement of sanctions on North Korea while also seeking to engage with the reclusive state diplomatically are important to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the nominee for US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs said Tuesday. Daniel Kritenbrink also said he would try to find ways to further strengthen sanctions on the North if confirmed. "As I noted at the outset, the Biden-Harris administration is committed to

The Embassy of India in South Korea kicked off celebrations on Monday ahead of the seventh International Day of Yoga on June 21. In keeping with this year’s theme, “Be With Yoga, Be at Home,” embassy officials delivered a livestreamed message about the yogic way of life and its effects on physical and mental health. Emphasizing the significance of yoga amid the challenging times brought on by the pandemic and restrictions on social gatherings, Indian Ambassador to Korea Srip

VIENNA/SEOUL – President Moon Jae-in and German pharmaceutical company CureVac’s CEO Franz-Werner Hass discussed ways to bolster vaccine partnership during a virtual meeting Tuesday. No new deal was immediately disclosed. Their 20-minute videoconference came on the heels of Moon’s summit talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G-7 gathering in Cornwall, England on Saturday, during which the leaders agreed to seek synergy between Korea, the world’s second-

Japan committed a "discourtesy" by canceling agreed-upon talks between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga during the recent Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Britain, the head of South Korea's state diplomatic academy said Tuesday. Kim Joon-hyung, chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, also said on a local radio station that it is "diplomatically impolite" for Japan to press the South to accept its demands in a row over wartime forced

South Korea on Tuesday extended its special advisory against overseas travel for another month amid the continued spread of the new coronavirus, the foreign ministry said. The measure, which calls for citizens to cancel or postpone trips abroad, will remain in effect until July 15. The current advisory was set to expire Tuesday. The extension came as many countries around the world continue to restrict the entry of people arriving from overseas amid the continued spread of COVID-19, the minist

WASHINGTON -- The United States has no immediate plan to directly provide COVID-19 vaccine to North Korea but supports international efforts to assist the impoverished country cope with the pandemic, the State Department said Monday. "While we have no plans to provide vaccines to the DPRK, we continue to support international efforts aimed at the provision of critical humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable North Koreans," a department spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency, asking not