SEOUL/TOKYO -- South Korea on Tuesday lodged a strong protest against Japan’s renewed claim to the easternmost islets of Dokdo, a long-standing thorny issue in bilateral relations.Earlier in the day, Tokyo’s cabinet adopted its annual defense white paper, including the claim, inflaming public sentiment in South Korea at a time when Seoul is seeking cooperation with its neighbor for North Korea’s denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.“(Our government) strongly protests the wr

Trump’s cancellation of Pompeo trip likely to put brakes on South Korea’s efforts to advance inter-Korean relations

South Korean and U.S. diplomats held talks over Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Friday, drawing fresh attention to whether Seoul will join the new geopolitical initiative seen as targeting an assertive China.Seoul’s foreign ministry said the meeting was attended by its North American Affairs Bureau chief, Kim Tae-jin, as well as U.S.Deputy Assistant Secretary Walter Douglas and other officials.During the talks, the two sides also exchanged views about Seoul’s New Southern Policy designed t

BUSAN -- The Busan municipal government will re-enact the historic parade of Korea's cultural missions to Japan in the Japanese southwestern port city of Shimonoseki this week to promote friendship between the two countries, city officials said Friday.The ritual, to be held as part of a two-day South Korea-Japan cultural exchange event, will take place for the first time since Oct. 31 last year, when UNESCO added to its Memory of the World heritage program old diplomatic records of the dispatch

South Korea will push to open an inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong as scheduled, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday, amid concerns that the opening of the liaison office could violate sanctions on North Korea. Responding to a question on whether Seoul would go ahead with the opening without obtaining an exemption from UN sanctions imposed on North Korea, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said, “Yes.”“The South Korean government is pushing to open the inter-Korean liaison office

Korean Ambassador to Philippines Han Dong-man aims to improve security for Koreans in the Philippines

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon announced Sunday that the city government would invest 1 trillion won ($893 million) to tackle regional inequality within Seoul. 　According to the plans, the city government will introduce a set of investment measures to prioritize the development of northern Seoul -- including a plan to establish four new metro lines and relocate a number of government offices to the relatively lesser developed parts of the South Korean capital. 　The announcement was made after Park mo

Korea and China will resume their joint patrols on illegal fishing activities in the Yellow Sea in October, two years after a deadly clash between Korean authorities and Chinese fishermen, Seoul's oceans ministry said Friday.Fisheries authorities of the two nations reached an agreement in their meeting in Xingdao earlier this week to resume the joint rounds of inspections in the provisional water zone in the Yellow Sea, an area of positive collaboration between the Asian neighbors, the Ministry

WASHINGTON -- Terminating the free trade agreement between Korea and the United States would cost American consumers $4.6 billion annually, a study showed Thursday.The report by the National Foundation for American Policy comes as the two sides have yet to sign the revised version of the FTA, which went into effect in 2012. (Yonhap)The deal was renegotiated in March after US President Donald Trump threatened to pull the US out of it. He claimed the treaty was taking away American jobs and wideni

President Moon Jae-in’s proposal to set up an East Asian railroad community is not likely to gain steam without significant progress in talks between North Korea and the US over denuclearization, experts said.Moon announced the proposal to establish road and rail links across the Korean Peninsula before the end of this year and create the East Asian Railroad Community encompassing the Koreas, China, Japan, Mongolia, Russia and the US. “Beyond tackling the nuclear issue, the road map is about coo

A South Korean man who was kidnapped last month by an unidentified armed group in Libya remains in good health, a diplomat here said Thursday after visiting the country to seek the release of the hostage.Baik Joo-hyeon, a former ambassador to Kazakhstan, also said that the Libyan government has been keeping track of the abductee’s movements and is doing its best to secure his release.“There is video footage in which the hostage appears,” Baik told reporters, as he explained the health condition

South Korea expressed deep regret Wednesday over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s sending of a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine.Marking the 73rd anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, Abe sent a cash donation earlier in the day, while some politicians visited the Tokyo shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals.  Japanese lawmakers visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on April 20. (Yonhap)“We call on Japanese politicians to take a sincere att

Despite North Korea’s promise to denuclearize and public image makeover, Jo Sun-keun, 23, who has grown up under threat from North Korea’s occasional nuclear and missile tests, does not think the North will dismantle its nuclear arsenal completely. A unification flag (Yonhap)In his memory, North Korea has never stopped pursuing nuclear ambition, and used threats and fiery rhetoric toward its southern neighbor. It made conciliatory gestures only when it needed help from the South, and broke its o

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday sought to urge Japan to sincerely apologize to Korean women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military decades ago, saying the issue cannot be resolved diplomatically."The issue of comfort women for the Japanese military can truly be resolved when the victims' dignity and honor are restored and their broken hearts are healed," Moon said in a ceremony marking the designation of a new national day for comfort women.The issue has long been a s

South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Tuesday explained to her US counterpart, Mike Pompeo, the results of this week's cross-border talks on arranging an inter-Korean summit, her ministry said.The allies' top diplomats held a telephone conversation to exchange views on the situation on the peninsula, including the recent developments in inter-Korean relations. The two Koreas agreed to hold a summit in Pyongyang sometime in September during their high-level talks at the truce village o