Another whirlwind round of diplomacy is expected on the sidelines of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics this week, with US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump set to join the closing ceremony. Ivanka Trump (AP)Ivanka Trump, who serves as an adviser to her father in the White House, will lead the US delegation to the closing ceremony to be held in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, on Sunday, with her travel itinerary and who she will meet yet to be announced.　First lady Kim Jung-sook is like

Choo Mi-ae, chief of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, has called for China to play a greater role in resolving the North Korean nuclear stand-off during her talks with Fu Ying, chairperson of China's National People’s Congress Foreign Affairs Committee, the party said Saturday. Choo and Fu met on the sidelines of the 54th Munich Security Conference in the German city Friday (local time). Choo Mi-ae (right) and Fu Ying (Yonhap)“China has played the role of mediation for a long time and as s

TOKYO -- Japan renewed its claim to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo in its revised guidelines for textbooks unveiled on Wednesday.Japan's education ministry posted a draft version of the revised guidelines on Tokyo's e-government website for public view. If finalized, they are expected to apply to high school textbooks in phases from 2022.  Dokdo (Yonhap)Last year, Japan unveiled its textbook guidelines for elementary and middle school students, ordering them to be taught that Dokdo, c

South Korea and Uzbekistan on Tuesday agreed to further enhance bilateral ties and cooperation between the two countries, Seoul's finance ministry said.  Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon gives a lecture in Uzbekistan on Wednesday. (Yonhap)The agreement came at high-level talks between South Korean Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon and Uzbekistan's Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov in Tashkent.Their meeting is a follow-up to a summit meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Uzbek President S

South Korean ice hockey players during PyeongChang Winter Olympics (Yonhap)On the eve of his team's showdown against the joint Korean team in women's hockey tournament at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Japanese assistant coach Yuji Iizuka said Tuesday he has been "surprised" with Korea's struggles so far.Korea has dropped its first two games, by a comned score of 16-0. It has lost to Switzerland and to Sweden by identical scores of 8-0, while managing a total of 27 shots in those losses.Iizuka

The US is ready to engage in direct talks with North Korea even as it maintains its “maximum pressure campaign” on the regime, US Vice President Mike Pence has said, hinting at a shift in Washington’s North Korea policy.　The US and South Korea have agreed on terms for further engagement with North Korea, first by Seoul and then possibly leading to talks with Washington, Pence said in an interview with the Washington Post aboard Air Force Two on his way home from the Olympics in South Korea on Su

How to deal with North Korea was one of the main topics when lawmakers from South Korea and Japan held a discussion in Seoul on Monday, officials said, amid a thaw in inter-Korean relations spurred by North Korea's Olympics charm offensive.Relations between South Korea and North Korea have warmed rapidly in recent weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in his New Year's Day address that the country was willing to participate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The two Koreas have since

South Korea on right track, but better coordination needed among relevant agencies

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has dismissed a call from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to quickly resume South Korea's joint military drills with the United States, calling it a violation of his country's sovereignty, an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday.   The Japanese leader's call came in a bilateral summit held in Yongpyeong, 200 kilometers east of Seoul, on Friday. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in (right) shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minist

US Vice President Mike Pence avoided encountering North Korea's ceremonial leader Kim Young-nam during a reception dinner ahead of the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Friday, underscoring chilly relations between Washington and Pyongyang.  US Vice President Mike Pence, second from bottom right, sits between second lady Karen Pence, third from from bottom left, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South K

GANGNEUNG -- A South Korean ice dance duo will perform to Korean folk ballad "Arirang" at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, with several words referencing the country's eastern islets of Dokdo cut out to avoid offending Japan, at the international sporting event, according to skating officials Friday. This file photo shows South Korean ice dance team of Min Yu-ra and Alexander Gamelin during a practice session at Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics

President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a summit Friday, but their third meeting served little more than to confirm differences between the two sides over thorny issues. From left: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (Yonhap)According to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, the two leaders began with the issue of the 2015 “comfort women” agreement. “The comfort women agreement is an agreement between countries, and the internation

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday expressed hope to form "true friendship" with Japan but said Japan must first look squarely at the countries' shared history.In a bilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Moon called for efforts to enable a future-oriented relationship between the two countries."I sincerely hope the two countries can be true friends that can communicate with heart. As I have repeatedly said before, I plan to work with the prime minister to enable futu

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are set to hold bilateral talks Friday, amid a renewed dispute over Japan's wartime sexual slavery of Korean women.The Moon-Abe summit will be held in PyeongChang, the host town of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games located some 180 kilometers east of Seoul. The meeting will be held shortly before the opening ceremony of the quadrennial event.The two leaders are widely expected to discuss ways to peacefully resolve the North Ko

As North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s younger sister comes to South Korea for the PyeongChang Olympics, questions are growing over whether her visit could be a game changer for talks between North Korea and the US. North Korea said Wednesday it would send Kim Yo-jong, first vice director of Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee, as a member of the high-level delegation to South Korea for a three-day visit starting Friday. She is the first member of the North’s “Kim Dynasty” to visit the South