WASHINGTON -- The United States is committed to ensuring a "free and open" Indo-Pacific region amid challenges posed by China, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday, including South Korea among his country's partners. In an opinion piece for The Straits Times in Singapore, Esper summarized the progress his department has made in the year since releasing its Indo-Pacific Strategy Report. Across the three pillars of preparedness, strengthening partnerships, and promoting a more net

South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to create a special entry system for businesspeople and other essential travelers as exemptions to entry curbs being imposed over coronavirus concerns, the foreign ministry said Monday. The two countries reached the agreement during the three-day visit by Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Gunn to the Middle Eastern country over the weekend. Kim's visit was arranged to discuss ways to enhance cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The "fast-

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha spoke by phone with the chief of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday and discussed ways for greater cooperation amid the coronavirus pandemic, her office said. During the phone call with Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi, Kang said South Korea is looking into measures that would allow special entry of businesspeople from ASEAN member states, as exemptions to current entry restrictions over the COVID-19 outbreak, to enable essenti

South Korea on Monday expressed deep regret over Tokyo’s neglect of its pledge to commemorate victims of wartime forced labor at a newly opened facility celebrating its industrial revolution, and condemned the exhibitions as “distortion of facts.” 　 On Monday, the Industrial Heritage Information Center was opened to the public in Tokyo, introducing 23 modern Japanese Meiji-era sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the notorious Hashima Island, also known as

South Korea called in Japan's top envoy in Seoul and voiced "deep regrets" Monday after Tokyo failed to honor wartime forced labor victims at an information center on industrial revolution sites registered on UNESCO's World Heritage list. Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho called in Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita, hours after the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo opened to the public following a monthslong closure due to the new coronavirus. Upon the 2015 World H

TOKYO -- Japan has not fulfilled its pledge to commemorate Korean victims of wartime forced labor in a new facility celebrating its industrial revolution, threatening to further strain already-sour Seoul-Tokyo relations, a trip to the site revealed on Sunday, Japan is scheduled to open the Industrial Heritage Information Centre on Monday. On the eve of the opening, a pool of Tokyo-based correspondents paid a visit. Twenty-three sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution were designated as

The US Embassy in Seoul hung a banner on its building Saturday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has spread across the US, the embassy said Sunday. “The US Embassy stands in solidarity with fellow Americans grieving and peacefully protesting to demand positive change,” the embassy said on social media Saturday. “Our #BlackLivesMatter banner shows our support for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality as we strive to be a more inclusive &

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with the head of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) on Friday and discussed the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to develop a vaccine, her office said. In the meeting with Jerome Kim, she said that the role of the IVI has become more important as an international organization with expertise in development and distribution of vaccines, given the world is still facing the COVID-19 pandemic without a vaccine. In response, Kim explained that the IVI ha

Senior diplomats of South Korea and China held a videoconference Thursday to discuss the possibility of their countries and Japan holding an annual trilateral summit this year and ways to handle the aftermath of the new coronavirus, the foreign ministry said. The Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) between Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Gunn and Vice Chinese Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui took place, as Seoul, this year's host of the three-way summit, moves to bolster diplomacy with Beijing and Tokyo.

A United Nations official positively evaluated South Korea's transparent use of personal information for the purpose of tracing coronavirus infections as an exemplar in the global fight against the pandemic, a document showed Thursday. David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, described the country's approach as balanced between demand for public health surveillance to trace infections and the need to reveal information of contact-tracking efforts in a report to be submit

President Moon Jae-in expressed his gratitude Wednesday to the governments of Gabon, Nigeria and France for cooperation in successful efforts to secure the release of a South Korean man kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Gabon in early May. On his social media account, Moon also commended hard work by South Korean civil servants and authorities charged with handling the matter. The previous day, the foreign ministry announced that the man in his 50s had been set free in southern Nigeria. H

The foreign ministry said Wednesday it hosted a videoconference with countries in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss ways to increase contributions to the United Nations peacebuilding efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic. The session, headed by Chung Byung-ha, director general for international organizations at Seoul's foreign ministry, focused on how to better contribute as Asia-Pacific nations to promoting the UN Peacebuilding Architecture, a regime aimed at better responding to countries

WASHINGTON -- South Korea already chose a system of democracy decades ago, a senior US official said Tuesday in response to a Seoul official boasting that his country can now choose between the United States and China. South Korea's position in the growing US-China rivalry came into sharper focus after Seoul's ambassador to Washington, Lee Soo-hyuck, told reporters last week that he feels pride in his country being able to "choose" between the two superpowers and not being forced to

WASHINGTON -- The US Senate confirmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., with years of duty experience in South Korea, as the new US Air Force chief of staff Tuesday in a unanimous vote that will make him the first African-American to lead a US military branch. The US Air Force said that Brown, currently the Pacific Air Forces commander, won the Senate confirmation in a 98-0 vote to become the 22nd Air Force chief, which President Donald Trump hailed as "historic." "General Charles Bro

Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho has called for continued international efforts toward achieving the shared goals of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and promoting peaceful use of nuclear energy, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. Lee made the remark during the Stockholm Ministerial Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament and the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) held via videoconferencing late Tuesday to discuss cooperation to advance the commitments within the NPT framework. The Stoc