South Korea and China agreed to strengthen cooperation against fine dust during their prime ministerial talks here Wednesday.In a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon pointed out that, "Air pollution, including fine dust, is a pressing national task (to resolve) for both countries." South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Kequiang ahead of the annual Boao Forum, held in southern island province of Hainan. (Yonhap)Th

The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States will hold talks in Washington later this week to discuss diplomacy with North Korea following last month's unfruitful summit between Washington and Pyongyang, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are set to meet Friday (Washington time) after Kang attends a U.N. ministerial meeting on peace-keeping in New York the same day. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (Yonhap)Kang a

South Korea strongly condemned Japan on Tuesday for approving new elementary school textbooks with intensified claim to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Japan to retract the measure, emphasizing that the islets in the East Sea belong to South Korea. (Yonhap)"The government strongly condemns the Japanese government's authorization of the elementary school textbooks, including its unjustifiable claim to Dokdo, which is clearly our indi

South Korea on Friday held an interagency government meeting on Britain's planned exit from the European Union (EU) after leaders of the regional bloc agreed to extend the deadline for withdrawal.Officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, finance and trade, as well as the Korea Customs Service, attended the meeting to discuss how to minimize any negative ramifications that could arise should Britain leave the EU. British Prime Minister Theresa May holds a press conference on March 22 at t

South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae held an emergency meeting of its National Security Council on Friday, hours after North Korea pulled out its officials from a joint liaison office with South Korea in its border town of Kaesong.The NSC meeting, held at Cheong Wa Dae, was chaired by Chung Eui-yong, the top security adviser to President Moon Jae-in, according to Cheong Wa Dae. Chung Eui-yong (Yonhap)"The standing members of the NSC discussed the North's withdrawal from the joint liai

South Korea's foreign minister has intervened over a provincial proposal to apply stickers to some Japanese-made items in schools as "made by a Japanese firm responsible for war crimes".South Korea and Japan are both democracies and US allies faced with an increasingly assertive China and the long-running threat of nuclear-armed North Korea.But their own ties have remained icy for years due to bitter disputes over history and territory stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean pe

South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator has met the European Union's foreign affairs chief to discuss ways to achieve North Korea's denuclearization, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, met Federica Mogherini, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday."The two sides shared the need for the international community to keep the momentum for dia

South Korea said Thursday it will provide Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi with a total of $500,000 worth of humanitarian assistance after they suffered huge damage from a cyclone.The southern African countries were recently hit hard by Cyclone Idai, which has killed hundreds of people and left many others missing or displaced. (AFP-Yonhap)"The government plans to offer $300,000 to Mozambique as well as $100,000 each to Zimbabwe and Malawi in consideration of the scale of the damage and the inter

A South Korean diplomat said Wednesday that the lifting of sanctions against North Korea can come after the communist regime passes an "irreversible point of denuclearization." (Yonhap)Rhee Dong-yeol, the director general of the foreign ministry's Korean Peninsula regime bureau, also said that Seoul is considering proposing high-level inter-Korean talks as part of efforts to facilitate dialogue between the United States and the North."If the denuclearization process passed an irreversible point,

South Korea and the United States held a working group session Thursday to discuss about ways to resume denuclearization negotiations with North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. The two allies held a working group meeting in Washington, DC, the first after the summit between the US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi faltered without an agreement last month. According to the Foreign Ministry, the two sides discussed on pending issues regarding North Korea,

The leaders of South Korea and Cambodia agreed Friday to expand the countries' economic cooperation while also vowing joint efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.In their summit talks, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also agreed to efforts to further improve South Korea's relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations."President Moon expressed his determination to further develop the close cooperative relations bet

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to hold a summit with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday, following a meeting with King Norodom Sihamoni.The summit was widely expected to focus on ways to improve South Korea-Cambodia relations as Moon's visit marks the first of its kind by a South Korean leader in 10 years.Moon arrived here Thursday on a three-day state visit.(Yonhap)His trip was originally set to begin Friday in a welcome ceremony to be hosted by the Cambodian monarch, but he

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday vowed efforts to further improve his country's relationship with Cambodia and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries, insisting that increased cooperation will also lead to more opportunities for South Korean businesses and people."When the cooperation and exchange between the two countries are strengthened, the door to more opportunities will open to our companies and residents here," the president said in a meeting with some

South Korea and Japan had another round of working-level consultations Thursday only to confirm their contradicting views on the issue of compensation for Tokyo's wartime wrongdoing.It heralds a drawn-out diplomatic stand-off between the neighbors amid Japan's talk of possible economic retaliation for punitive measures against its companies in connection with the two nations' shared history.Last year, South Korea's Supreme Court ordered some Japanese firms to compensate Korean victims of forced

South Korean President Moon Jae-in headed for Malaysia on Tuesday, wrapping up his three-day state visit to Brunei, where he and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah discussed ways to boost their countries' cooperation and exchange.Moon is currently on a three-nation tour that will also take him to Cambodia. Both Malaysia and Cambodia, along with Brunei, are members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (Yohnap)The South Korean president's tour is partly aimed at enhancing his country's bi