Seoul is scrambling to respond to the seizure of a South Korea-flagged tanker by Iran, sending a Navy unit to the Strait of Hormuz and summoning Tehran’s envoy to Seoul demanding the immediate release of the vessel and its crew. 　   　 South Korea’s Foreign Ministry is to dispatch a delegation to Iran soon for talks to free the tanker and its sailors, while First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun is planning to visit Tehran early next week.　   　 Cheong Wa Dae’s Nati

WASHINGTON -- The US State Department on Monday called on Iran to immediately release a South Korea-flagged tanker it detained. The State Department argued Iran's detention of the South Korean tanker may be part of an attempt to force the international community to remove its sanctions on the country. "The United States is tracking reports that the Iranian regime has detained a Republic of Korea-flagged tanker," a department spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency, referring to South Ko

 A South Korean court is set to rule on two lawsuits filed against the Japanese government by Korean women who were forced to work in Japan’s military brothels during World War II, with the decision likely to impact the already fragile state of bilateral relations. 　 The Seoul Central District Court is set to decide Friday on a case filed against the Japanese government by 12 plaintiffs -- Korean victims and victims’ bereaved family members -- demanding 100 million won ($92,50

South Korea strongly condemns a terrorist attack presumed to have taken place at a southern airport in Yemen and expresses support for international efforts to end the conflict in the region, the foreign ministry said Monday. "Our government strongly condemns the presumed terrorist attack at the Aden International Airport that occurred at an important juncture in which the agreement on the formation of a new Yemeni government is being implemented," ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has appealed a South Korean court's order to seize its assets held in South Korea soon after the relevant legal process to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor took effect late last month, judicial officials said Monday. The public notifications to Mitsubishi Heavy went into force last Tuesday and Wednesday, after the company failed to carry out a 2018 order by the Supreme Court to compensate five plaintiffs, including a 91-year-old victim. The

South Korea and Japan are expected to inaugurate their new ambassadors to Tokyo and Seoul, respectively, next month after they recently endorsed each other's designations, multiple sources said Thursday. Last week, Tokyo gave diplomatic consent to Seoul's designation of Kang Chang-il, a former four-term ruling party lawmaker, while its nomination of Koichi Aiboshi, the current ambassador to Israel, has also been endorsed by Seoul, the sources said. The diplomatic green light came as Seoul seek

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha expressed hope for North Korea to join a new regional cooperative initiative on public health, noting Pyongyang’s participation could lay the foundation for peace on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.  She made the remarks during the inaugural session of the Northeast Asia Conference on Health Security on Tuesday evening. The forum is based on President Moon Jae-in’s proposal at the United Nations in September to launch a “Nort

South Korea is expected to get Japan's formal diplomatic consent in the near future for its pick of Kang Chang-il, a former four-term lawmaker, as new ambassador to the neighboring country, an informed source said Tuesday. In late November, President Moon Jae-in picked Kang as Seoul's new top envoy in Tokyo, saying his wide web of Japanese contacts will help improve bilateral relations badly frayed over wartime forced labor and Tokyo's export curbs. But Japanese media reported that some rulin

Diplomatic tensions between South Korea and Japan are likely to worsen after a court order took effect Tuesday, mandating that the local assets of a Japanese firm be sold off to compensate victims of forced labor. At the start of Tuesday, a public notice issued by the Daejeon District Court went into effect authorizing the seizure of assets held in South Korea by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. This would fulfill a November 2018 ruling by the Supreme Court ordering the company to provide between

Public notices of a local court took effect Tuesday to move forward a legal process to sell off local assets of a Japanese firm to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor, in a procedure likely to raise diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Tokyo. The public notification to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries went into force at the start of Tuesday, as the company failed to carry out a 2018 order by the Supreme Court to compensate five plaintiffs, including a 91-year-old victim, with no dipl

The first shipment of US biotech company Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for American troops arrived in South Korea on Friday. It is the first coronavirus vaccine that has been brought into the country. A cargo plane of US delivery company FedEx Corp. carrying the vaccine landed at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, from Memphis at around 12:54 p.m., according to the airport authority. The shipment, believed to be 1,000 doses of the vaccine, was being transported to Allgood Army Communi

The US State Department expressed strong support for South Korea and its efforts to defend its air space on Wednesday, one day after more than a dozen Chinese and Russian aircraft entered the country's air defense identification zone (KADIZ). The State Department also said the United States' commitment to the defense of its allies is "ironclad." "The United States strongly supports our ROK ally and its concerns regarding recent provocative air operations," a department spok

South Korea forged a formal agreement with the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization to provide support to the international body’s headquarters in Seoul, officials said Wednesday. The headquarters agreement, signed by South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and AFoCO Executive Director Chencho Norbu, calls on the Korean government facilitating the organization’s operations here and mission of responding to climate change and realizing sustainable forest management. It also r

South Korea said Wednesday it will suspend flights arriving from Britain until the end of this year over concerns about a new strain of the novel coronavirus. The country's diplomatic missions in Britain will suspend issuing quarantine-waiver documents so as to place all arrivals from the European nation in a 14-day quarantine, according to health authorities. The country will also conduct an additional virus test when they are released from quarantine. South Korea will beef up airport quaran

President Moon Jae-in expressed expectations Friday for closer South Korea-Indonesia partnership and co-prosperity under their free trade agreement. The two sides signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) earlier in the day. "With CEPA, we became even closer and more special friends," he wrote on his social media account. "With CEPA, Indonesia and Korea came to open markets to a greater extent than when we signed RCEP and Korea-ASEAN FTA." Thanks to