Japan notified South Korea on Tuesday that it has not made any specific decision yet on how to dispose of contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, Seoul officials said.Tomofumi Nishinaga, an economic minister from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, delivered a diplomatic note in response to South Korea's request last Monday to clarify its disposal plans and verify speculation that it could discharge the radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, they said. "The Japanes

South Korea and Ethiopia agreed during a summit between their leaders in Seoul on Monday to launch a joint committee, led by their top diplomats, for deepening bilateral partnerships.President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, who's on a state visit to South Korea, shared a view that the two sides need to expand their traditional friendly ties to "mutually beneficial, substantive" cooperation in such sectors as trade, investment, development cooperation, forestry and envir

The spokeswoman of the US State Department has expressed disappointment again over South Korea's decision last week to terminate its military information-sharing agreement with Japan.  Amid a rancorous row with Tokyo over wartime history and trade, Seoul announced its decision last week to end the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), seen as a rare symbol of security collaboration between the two countries and a platform to promote their trilateral defense coope

US President Donald Trump has called the recently concluded South Korea-US combined military exercise "unnecessary" and a "total waste of money" despite heightened tensions caused by Pyongyang's recent launches of short-range projectiles.During the Group of Seven summit in France on Sunday, Trump also told reporters that Pyongyang's projectile launches do not represent a breach of his agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that involves nuclear and longer-range ballis

Cultural exchanges must continue despite differences, KOCIS leader says

An op-ed piece on the trade row between Korea and Japan, published Aug. 11 by the Washington Post, has grabbed the spotlight in both nations. Written by Gregg A. Brazinsky, a professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University in the US, the piece blamed the bilateral spat on Japan’s lack of apology for past wrongdoings.  Specializing in East Asian history and diplomacy, the scholar is an expert on Korea’s international relations and has written two bo

South Korea consulted with the United States often and adequately on the fate of a bilateral pact with Japan on sharing military intelligence, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday, as Washington has voiced "strong concern" and "disappointment" over Seoul's decision to discard the key tool for strengthening trilateral security cooperation in Northeast Asia."It's true that the US hoped for the extension of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA)," South K

South Korea's foreign ministry called in Japan's top envoy in Seoul on Friday to officially notify Tokyo of its intent to end a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact. First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young gave Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Yasumasa Nagamine a note verbale, a diplomatic document, to formally express Seoul's intent to terminate the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).But the two sides shared the view that it is important to continue diplomat

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper voiced concerns Friday over South Korea's decision to terminate the intelligence-sharing pact with Japan when he spoke by phone with Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, a ministry official said."Our minister explained to Esper detailed backgrounds that caused South Korea to make such a decision, including Japan's insincere responses to South Korea's diverse efforts (to resolve pending issues)," the official told reporters."While expressing concern

US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun headed home from South Korea on Friday, a day after South Korea decided to end a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo seen as a symbolic element of trilateral security cooperation.Biegun came to Seoul on Tuesday for talks with senior Seoul officials over joint efforts to resume working-level nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. He apparently extended his stay here by one day for an unspecified reason. Biegun refu

The South Korean government said Friday that it will strengthen safety checks on imported food from Japan for possible radiation.The scale of radiation contamination checks on foods will be doubled starting later in the day, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The products that will be subject to closer scrutiny by inspectors are those that have a record of being returned to sellers in the past five years after minute amounts of radiation were detected, the ministry said.Products

The United States expressed "strong concern" and "disappointment" Thursday after South Korea withdrew from a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan.Earlier, Seoul announced its decision to end the General Security of Military Information Agreement amid a bilateral dispute over trade and history.In a rare public rebuke of its South Korean ally, the US State Department and the Pentagon expressed their displeasure with the move."We're disappointed to see the decision

South Korea will maintain a watertight combined readiness posture with the United States based on their strong alliance regardless of its decision to end the military information-sharing pact with Japan, the defense ministry said Thursday.Earlier in the day, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae announced its decision not to renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) amid deteriorating bilateral ties following Japan's export restrictions on South Korea."The defens

The military information-sharing accord between South Korea and Japan, which Seoul decided Thursday to terminate, represented the first military agreement between the two sides since Korea was liberated from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.The pact, titled the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), was signed on November 23, 2016, between then-South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and then-Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Yasumasa Nagamine in Seoul, effective immediatel

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday that South Korea's decision to terminate a military pact with Japan is separate from the Seoul-Washington alliance, amid concerns that it could erode cooperation among the three countries for regional security."(The decision) is a separate issue from the South Korea-US alliance, and the alliance will incessantly strengthen cooperation," Kang told reporters at Incheon International Airport upon arriving from Beijing.The minister added that t