IKI ISLAND, Japan -- About 2,770 sets of remains belonging to Korean people forcibly brought to Japan to work for its factories and military during World War II have yet to be repatriated home, South Korean government officials said Friday.Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, a time during which historians say millions of Koreans were mobilized into forced labor.The remains have been retrieved and kept in 340 temples or cineraria across the neighboring country -- 480 in the Hokkai

Experts cautiously raised the possibility Thursday that South Korea, North Korea and the US could declare an end to the Korean War in Singapore following a Pyongyang-Washington summit later this month, amid preparations in full swing for the historic summit.If the summit -- which US President Donald Trump earlier canceled only to say a day later that it could still take place -- is held as planned in Singapore, the possibility of a three-way summit involving the Koreas and the US there would be

The presidential office is pushing to hold a summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong in July, it said Wednesday.South Korean President Moon Jae-in (Yonhap)“Cheong Wa Dae has sent an official to Singapore on a survey mission to prepare for the South Korea-Singapore summit slated to be held in July,” the presidential office said in a released statement.The statement came after a news media outlet earlier reported that the presidential offic

Korea’s Legislation Ministry shared its technology to launch a new legal database access system in Myanmar, the ministry said on Tuesday.On May 24, Myanmar launched Myanmar Law Information System which allows people to search the country’s legal information via computer and mobile applications. Korea’s Ministry of Legislature cooperated with Myanmar government to establish the system, first developed here and called the National Law Information Center of Republic of Korea. Participants pose at t

Russia's top diplomat will visit North Korea to meet amid ongoing preparations for Pyongyang to hold its unprecedented summit with the United States, according to the North's state-media on Wednesday.The Korean Central News Agency reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will "soon" visit Pyongyang at the invitation of North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho.It did not say when he exactly will arrive in the North and what the agenda the two will discuss will be. A Russian media comp

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Monday to meet ahead of the president's planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the White House said.Trump and Abe spoke by phone after the US leader canceled his June 12 meeting with Kim, citing "open hostility" from the regime, and then put it back on track.They "confirmed they would meet again to continue close coordination in advance of the expected meeting between the United States and North K

Korean pool reporters recount witnessing large explosion at NK nuclear test site

South Korea launched a government-civilian team Monday to promote cultural and social ties with Japan despite decades of disputes between the neighboring countries over historical issues. The move reflects Seoul's efforts to expand non-political exchanges with Tokyo separately from the diplomatic stand-offs over its wartime atrocities and territorial claims.Speaking at a related ceremony here, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha reaffirmed the government's two-track approach, saying the bilateral re

The US-North Korea summit may be back on track following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s affirmation of his commitment to “complete denuclearization” and US President Donald Trump commenting negotiations over the summit are “going very well.”  　Kim has a firm commitment to “a complete denuclearization” and willingness to “end the history of war and confrontation” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said during a press briefing Sunday after he held talks with Kim on the border village of Panmunj

Government Policy Coordination Minister Hong Nam-ki met with his Vietnamese counterpart on Wednesday and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral relations and exchanged views on the Korean Peninsula situation, Hong's office said.During the meeting with Mai Tien Dung, minister and chairman of the Government Office, Hong noted that relations between the two countries have moved rapidly forward since they established diplomatic relations in 1992 and that he looks forward to further enhancing ties un

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump urged China on Monday to tightly control its border with North Korea until after he signs a nuclear deal with the regime.Trump is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12, although Pyongyang has threatened to pull out of the summit."China must continue to be strong & tight on the Border of North Korea until a deal is made," he wrote in a tweet. "The word is that recently the Border has become much more porous and more has be

South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in Washington on Monday for talks with US President Donald Trump about strategies for Trump's upcoming high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.Moon is scheduled to hold talks with Trump on Tuesday, starting with a 30-minute private meeting where the leaders will be accompanied by no one else besides only their interpreters, an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said."The fact that the two leaders will hold talks with

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to leave for Washington on Monday on an apparent mission to help broker a nuclear deal between the United States and North Korea ahead of their first-ever summit next month.Moon's trip follows his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjom on April 27.He will hold talks with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Washington time).The trip, however, also comes after a series of old rhetoric from Pyongyang that

China dismissed U.S. President Trump's assertion Friday that President Xi Jinping might be behind North Korea's sudden shift to a recalcitrant attitude.   Following a weeks-long peace offensive, the North has changed its tack. It called off scheduled high-level talks with South Korea earlier this week and threatened to reconsider the plan to hold summit talks with the U.S. in Singapore next month.   Pyongyang cited the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint air combat drills and denuclearization-related

US President Donald Trump stressed Thursday (US time) that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s regime will not be affected if a denuclearization deal is reached between the two countries in an apparent effort to appease Pyongyang.　Trump also said that the “Libyan model” -- which Pyongyang has strongly opposed -- isn’t a model he is considering for North Korea’s denuclearization, but warned that Kim could face the same fate as Libya’s former leader if the North doesn’t strike a deal on its nuclear