A high-ranking United Arab Emirates official arrived in Seoul on Monday for a two-day visit that could address opposition allegations that Seoul's presidential chief of staff traveled to the Middle Eastern nation last month to secretly settle a dispute between the two countries.Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi, was one of the UAE officials who attended a meeting between presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin

CAMP DAVID -- US President Donald Trump said Saturday he would be willing to speak directly with Kim Jong-un, voicing hope that rare talks between North and South Korea could help deescalate the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear drive.Trump's remarks were a further pivot from his often-bellicose rhetoric on North Korea and Kim, with whom he has engaged in a war of words that raised fears of nuclear war as Pyongyang carried out missile and nuclear tests."I always believe in talking," Trump said at

South Korea's auto industry is expected to feel the pinch of potential changes as it became the first target of renegotiation of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, industry officials said Saturday.In the first round of talks on amending the five-year-old deal Friday, U.S. negotiators raised issues related to autos and automotive parts, sources said. Details of the demands made were not disclosed by the two sides. "The United States discussed proposals to move towards fair and

TOKYO -- North Korea is likely to join in the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics to be held in South Korea, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported Saturday, citing the North's IOC member.Alpensia Sliding Center in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)According to the report, Chang Ung, Pyongyang's sole IOC member, said his country is "likely to participate" in the Winter Games slated for Feb. 9-25 in the South Korean county of PyeongChang, while meeting with reporters at B

WASHINGTON -- South Korea and the United States held their first meeting Friday to discuss amendments to their free trade deal as Washington pushes to reduce its trade deficit with the Asian country.Each side raised issues pertaining to the revision and implementation of the Korea-US free trade agreement, known as KORUS, including "sensitive areas," South Korea's trade ministry said in a statement.The South Korean side, in particular, noted its interest in resolving issues over the investor-stat

South and North Korea will continue their discussions for a second day on Sunday to arrange the details of high-level talks next week over the North's potential participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, officials here said Saturday.The two Koreas agreed Friday to hold their first official dialogue in more than two years next Tuesday at the border truce village of Panmunjom."At around 9:30 a.m., our side and North Korea began hotline communications and held consultations over the composit

South Korea's foreign minister has begun her efforts to listen to views from the victims of Japan's sexual slavery during World War II in a bid to determine the government's stance on a controversial deal with Japan over its wartime atrocities, a government source said Friday.In December, after completing a monthslong review of the 2015 deal on the so-called comfort women issue, a foreign ministry task force concluded that there were procedural problems and that insufficient efforts were made to

South Korea's top envoy on North Korean nuclear issues has talked to his American and Japanese counterparts to share the latest news about the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, the foreign ministry said Thursday. YonhapLee Do-hoon, the special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, held a telephone communication with Joseph Yun, the U.S.Special Representative for North Korea Policy, on Tuesday and had a further telephone call with Japanese counterpart Kenji Kan

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday reiterated his stance that a 2015 deal between Seoul and Tokyo on ending their longstanding dispute over former wartime sex slaves is defective but said the incumbent government may still work with the agreement to resolve the issue."We have said the agreement signed by the former government is defective, but there are some difficulties because it is also true the former government made an official agreement and we must resolve the issue under the existing relat

South Korea has named more women and non-career diplomats to lead the country's diplomatic missions overseas, a decision aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the nation's foreign service, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. Cho Shin-hee, a senior official at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries named as South Korea's ambassador to Fiji, was one of five women newly appointed to head South Korean diplomatic missions in a reshuffle, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the latest

Scholars discuss security challenges looming ahead as North Korea nears its goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear power.

South Korea will send 10,000 tons of rice to Vietnam that was hit hard by a typhoon, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Monday.The Southeast Asian country sustained considerable damage caused by Typhoon Damrey last year, with Hanoi requesting support from the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) last November. The reserve is maintained by South Korea, China, Japan and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.Seoul has already pledged to offer assist

The leader of the ruling Democratic Party on Friday called for a new agreement to settle the long-simmering dispute over Japan's wartime sexual slavery in a way acceptable to the victims.Choo Mi-ae made the remarks a day after President Moon Jae-in criticized the 2015 deal between Seoul and Tokyo as seriously flawed, as the negotiations failed to reflect the opinions of the victims and the citizens."We need a new agreement that can be accepted by the victims," Choo said during a meeting with sen

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that the 2015 South Korea-Japan agreement on Japan’s wartime enslavement of Korean women does not resolve the “comfort women” issue. He also stressed it was a “political agreement” that did not take the opinions of victims and citizens into account and urged the government to swiftly take follow-up measures.  (Yonhap)The accord pushes for both nations to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the comfort women issue, and Tokyo made financial compensation of 1 bill

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that the long-simmering issue of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women can't be resolved by a bilateral 2015 accord, calling it a "political" deal with no consensus from victims and citizens.Moon made the remarks a day after the foreign ministry task force announced the outcome of its five-month review of the deal, finding that the former Park Geun-hye administration kept part of the accord secret apparently to avoid criticism of its concessions t